(Note -- ComCast has done this already. WOW is doing it now. Time Warner will do it soon.)
I got a letter the other day from my cable TV carrier, WOW. It told me how "excited" they were about their latest scheme to make me pay more while giving me less. Like all the other cable companies, they're converting to an all-digital delivery system. WOW starts their conversion in March. On the plus side, I'll soon get 42 additional Hi-Def channels, for an HD total of 78, the large majority of which I never watch.
On the negative side, the all-digital transition will increase costs for almost all subscribers. Any TV with an HD receiver or DVR will be OK, but those without either will now require a digital adapter (DTA) for continued reception of your full cable lineup. Without installing a digital adapter, all you'll get is very limited, very basic local channels. So if you want to continue receiving what you're paying for, you'll need adapters for every TV not already attached to digital equipment.
WOW will send me two DTA's and they'll be free until 2013. That's nice. (And you can bet your ass they won't be free after that.) But realistically, most households have more TV's than that. Additional adapters are available, but only by renting them from your cable company. You cannot buy one from them, and they're not otherwise available to the consumer market. So they gotcha: You'll probably need a couple additional DTA's, and the only place to get 'em is your cable company.
These adapters are simple and small. Each DTA package includes a slim plastic box (the adapter) roughly the size of a checkbook, with a short coaxial cable, a power cord (yes, they need to be plugged in), and its own cheap Chinese remote (another goddam remote!). Its cost of manufacture might be $10. WOW will rent additional DTA's to me for $2 a month, each. (Until they decide to make it $3 or $4 or $5.)
True confessions: Here at the Buster Gammons estate we have 11 TV's hooked up to cable. Excessive? Probably. A choice? Certainly. Getting rid of a few? Certainly not!
Of the 11, we have one on an HD receiver. On that TV, we get the full digital cable lineup of 2837 mostly useless channels, including HD, music, pay-per-view, on-demand, etc., etc. The other 10 TV's don't get all that, but they still get plenty, say, 80-90 channels. But if I want to watch any of those channels, I'm gonna need 10 total adapters. Right now, I'm paying almost $100 a month. For me, the adapters will be another $20.
And there's this -- Four of those TV's are digital and HD capable, meaning we get our local channels in HD on those 4 even without the HD receiver. That will no longer be true after installing the DTA's. The cheap-ass little boxes do not "support" HD and completely override the TV itself. The only way to get any HD at all is to rent additional HD boxes from the company. Gotcha again.
To summarize my lengthy rant on the digital transition:
For my situation, I will get more HD channels on one of my 11 TV's. Finally, I'll be able to enjoy C-SPAN in HD. Can't wait.
Unless I pay for 10 adapters, I'll lose virtually all the cable programming I'm paying for on all the other TV's.
With the adapters, I'll pay an additional $20 a month. I'll lose local HD on 4 of my TV's. I'll pay the cost of additional electricity to power those 10 adapters. I'll get 10 more remotes to misplace, lose and buy batteries for.
I, for one, am so happy we deregulated the cable companies a couple decades ago. It was gonna give us lots of choices and drive down prices, remember? Did I miss it?
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