I had a cable rep, local company is Time Warner Cable, show up at my door in February offering the Triple Play for $116/mo. for the first year and would increase incrementally by $8/mo. each of the next two years. I told him I had an HD-TiVo with Lifetime Service, bought the Lifetime with my first D-TiVo five years ago (tied to the account, not the machine) and used the $299-$100MIR special last August to pick up the HR10-250. That caused him to stop in his tracks. There's a lot of things that "Cable can", but that's not something I think he could duplicate. Even DirecTV doesn't do it anymore. I checked their channel lineup and they didn't have CBS or FOX in HD. If I have to give up Sunday Ticket, I'd at least need those two channels in High Definition.
I turned him down, but there were aspects that were attractive. If there were an upturn in my monthly income and they didn't mind looking the other way and let me keep DirecTV, let me turn in some old receivers and not cut the lines from the dish, I'd take up their offer. I know it's changed since I left, but for the most part, I've been more satisfied with DirecTV than I was with cable. Then again, DirecTV has made some changes that I'm not that happy with in the 8 years I've been with them, mostly since Rupert took over. If Verizon, already my DSL provider, starts offering FIOS in my area, the picture will get muddier, but there's no guarantee that will ever happen. My city has a population of ~35,000. Not exactly a lucrative market for the provider.
I turned him down, but there were aspects that were attractive. If there were an upturn in my monthly income and they didn't mind looking the other way and let me keep DirecTV, let me turn in some old receivers and not cut the lines from the dish, I'd take up their offer. I know it's changed since I left, but for the most part, I've been more satisfied with DirecTV than I was with cable. Then again, DirecTV has made some changes that I'm not that happy with in the 8 years I've been with them, mostly since Rupert took over. If Verizon, already my DSL provider, starts offering FIOS in my area, the picture will get muddier, but there's no guarantee that will ever happen. My city has a population of ~35,000. Not exactly a lucrative market for the provider.