Cablevision sucks
If you live on the East Coast, you probably heard that Cablevision -- one of the two major providers of cable television round these parts -- pulled ABC off the air early this morning in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut, the result of a dispute with Disney over fees. With the Oscars airing tonight and all, there are many people who are quite peeved over this, a move that seems to make no sense for anyone involved. I mean, this is New York City, the biggest media market in the world, in addition to being one of the world's entertainment capitals. It's also one of the gayest cities in the world, which has me giggling each time I envision hordes of NYC gays storming the Cablevision offices like Huns invading Rome to demand the Oscars get aired.
So, in an effort to soothe customer anger (seriously, there must be no worse job in the world today than Cablevision customer service rep), Cablevision sent out an email to customers a few minutes ago saying that all of their on-demand movies are free of charge today:
As someone who was looking forward to watching the Oscars, I consider this a lacking gesture, though one I still felt compelled to take advantage of. You see, I've been meaning to watch Julia & Julia for some time now (I know, I know...just shush, okay!), so a few minutes ago I decided to take advantage of this offer. In the past 35 minutes, I've now tried a dozen times to order the movie, and this is the message I've gotten each time:
You'd think that maybe before extending such an offer in an attempt to soothe customer fury, they'd do something to bolster the system to handle the increased demand, but no...these are the same people who run the New York Knicks after all.
GIVE ME BACK MY NIGHT OF HOLLYWOOD AUTOFELLATIO CABLEVISION!!!
UPDATE: Cablevision just sent another email to remind me and their other customers that we can all watch the Oscars online for free. I would do that, but apparently they don't know that I also subscribe to their crap internet service, which is rarely fast enough to watch live events on without me wanting to slam my face into a sheet of glass.
6 comments:
Cablevision sucks. We should boycott them!!
Wow, what douches. And I thought I'd heard horror stories about Comcast down here... Yea, I'd have been pissed too if I had bothered to care about the Oscars.
Something really needs to be done about the way cable distribution works. They basically have legal monopolies in various areas and there's really no reason for that. They should be required to compete just like any other company. Verizon branching out into cable service with their FIOS is bound to help, but not until they've got everything set up. Right now some areas have fantastic FIOS service and some aren't wired up quite well enough yet. I think once Verizon gets everything straight the cable companies are going to have a lot of people jumping ship and will have to rethink how they do business. I hope that happens soon.
I work for a cable company. Believe me when I tell you, dealing with the networks is an honest-to-fucking-god nightmare. Cablevision with Scripps (Food & HGTV) in 2009-2010, Cablevision with ABC in 2010, Time Warner with Fox in 2009, Time Warner with Viacom in 2008, one of the mid-west cable companies who almost lost a big bowl game last year...
Cable companies ddon't make much revenue on television these days. The networks and content providers with their requests for 20%+ raises after each contract and their willingness to fuck the viewers in order to get it has ensured that. Internet is where the cash is, especially those high speed packages.
But yeah, the cable companies are usually the first target of consumers for something goes wrong. Because, let's be honest, no one likes their cable company. But those assholes at the networks are ultimately the ones who are fucking up your day.
Interesting spin on the Cablevision -- Disney dustup. So Cablevision pulled ABC? Sorry, not true. Disney pulled their channels from the Cablevision lineup, deliberately on Oscar night to pressure Cablevision into giving them a dollar per subscriber, per month. For retransmitting a signal that is free over the air. So then Fox will want the same deal, then NBC Universal, then CBS, then PBS, then umm... whatever that channel that has all the teen shows on it.
Not that it doesn't mean Cablevision doesn't suck, either. Isn't it funny how they seem to get into more of these retransmission disputes than anyone else -- Food Network, Home and Garden, YES Network. But it's hard to feel sorry for Disney, since it cost us $340 for a family of 4 to go to their park for one day.
just enough incentive to kick cable to the curb--ALL cable. time warner, cablevision...they all suck, and they take your money for the privilege of occasionally dangling the loss of programming over our junkie heads. looking to de-tether myself from these freaks soon.
Cablevision is a company of the past to me now. To many problems I had with them to even being to write! I work and subscribe with DISH Network now, and am glad to have made the change. Number 1 among all satellite and cable providers is a true statement with DISH!
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