What do you hate most about cable?

[Bossy Monkey]

And before I'm called cynical or overly negative, let me say that I watch (or at least listen to) one hell of a lot of cable tv. I can only stand it by surfing away the instant any ad or promo starts, though. Other than that, I really love it!:P

[bowens43]

1. Where I live it goes out during bad weather .

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

2. When cable came out the point was commercial free television

Now you PAY your cable companies to broadcast INFOMERCIALS for half the fucking programming time

[jus_the_facts]

24. THANK YOU!!!! Haven't paid for TV in over a decade...

....free TV is shitty enough without PAYIN' for more goddamn commercials! :hi:

[Bossy Monkey]

25. The god's honest is that I sometimes think I'm dreaming when I think

that there was once a time when we honestly believed that cable meant no commercials. Fortunately or unfortunately, my household never had cable until it was well on its way to the all commercials all the time mess it is now, so I have no evidence to indicate that there was ever such a time that it wasn't. That said, I agree totally with your observation and stand in disbelief that we're paying to have this crap funneled into our homes.

[Left Is Write]

33. How true!

It has irked me for a long time that we PAY for television and still have to have commercials. Commercial revenue supported the non-pay stations and cable was supposed to be commercial free.

[phusion]

3. The fact that...

The fact that I can't choose only 4 channels and pay accordingly:
1) Comedy central
2) HBO
3) Link TV
4) OLN

Why do I have to pay for so much shit?

[mermaid]

7. AMEN To THAT!!

I would love to be able to pick and pay by the channel...and only the ones I want.

[Left Is Write]

34. An a la carte menu would be great.

Whether cable or satellite, that would be a wonderful option.

[mermaid]

4. Two Words. Fox News. n/t

[cheezus]

5. get TiVo!

my commercial breaks last 3 seconds

[no name no slogan]

6. 100+ channels, but still nothing but sh!t on TV

I thought when we got cable there would at least be something interesting on once in a while. Other than The War Channel and repeats of crap movies from the 80s, there's nothing.

But I like broadband internet (and HATED DSL), so I'll keep it :evilgrin:

[Ariana Celeste]

8. Other: The amazing lack of variety in programming

So many channels and hardly a damned thing to watch. I was paying for all that cable when all I watched was Comedy Central, Cartoon Network, CNN, and the occasional visit to the history channel or animal planet.

Everything else was just same ol' same ol'.

[Magrittes Pipe]

9. The way it feels when it's wrapped around my throat...

...slowly choking the life out of me.

[bluestateguy]

10. Not having a choice

I would like top be able to select the channels I buy. I don't need 6 local access channels, 3 or 4 shopping channels and several children's channels (though I like the Toon network). I'd also like to delete Fox News.

I know that cable companies are required to offer the major networks in their packages, but after that I think we should be able to pay for each station we buy after that. Cable companies could throw in incentives for people to buy 50 channels or 100 channels or more, but the choice would be ours.

I think there would be a great market out there for a cable provider who allowed customers to customize their own cable lineup. The system now forces us to buy many stations that we realistically will never watch. It reminds me of the old studio system in Hollywood that was eventually declared illegal by the federal government in the 1940's.

[edbermac]

11. Censoring!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Like AMC American Movie Classics...they censor or bleep certain scenes...hey I'm fuckin' payin' for it!!!!

[tridim]

12. Home shopping and fundie church channels

And the fact that even though I remove them from my channel lineup they switch around so much that they seem to always sneak their way back into my "good" channels.

[LSparkle]

13. No real news -- just gimme some TRUTH!

Thank God (and Brian Lamb) for C-Span!

[calico1]

14. I would say the endless infomercials.

I get up early even on weekends. Always have. If I turn the TV on early its infomercials galore. That, or firebreathing, bible thumping, hysterically screaming "ministers." Damn it, I pay for cable TV! Why do I have to be subjected to this? Oh, yes and the reruns of old TV shows on every cable channel. Sometimes I just want to get rid of it and go back to just reading. Maybe I should.

[SmileyBoy]

15. I get 54 channels on basic. My parents get over 200 on basic DirecTV.

That, my friends, is THE thing I hate the most.

[candy]

16. That it exists----the less TV the better IMHO.

[Patiod]

17. Freakin monopoly in 2005

Why is cable the only monopoly? The "someone had to lay the cable" doesn't wash in the era of phone and electric competition.

We watch too much TV already. If I had AMC, History Channel, Comedy Central, I'd never leave the house.

Thank God I get to see HBO when I travel - they repeat things so often, I get to see most everything they offer even if I'm only on the road twice a month.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

18. That I have to pay for 200 channels to get the few that I actually watch:

HBO
News World International
The International Channel
Sundance
IFC
TCM
History International
Comedy Channel
PBS
Discovery Science
USA (for Monk
BBCAmerica (but only for the Monday night mysteries)

By the way, satellite subscribers in Japan, but not here, get to subscribe to non-premium channels individually at about $3-$5 each per month.

[Eurobabe]

19. the fucking PRICE!!

My cable, just for digital and cable modem is $125 a month! And that was reduced from $147 last month when I reluctantly cancelled HBO.

Why, oh why can't we have ala carte pricing!!????

[Deja Q]

20. Cheaper to buy the 5 or 6 series you like than to rent cable for a few

months! It's much cheaper. One season of Golden Girls costs $28. One month of cable, to get the needed channel is $55 (for 2000, Lord knows how much mor it'd cost now.)

Endless commercials, period. It's pay-tv so I'm very annoyed when these for-pay channels STILL air 19 minutes of commercials in a 1 hour time slot. x(

You can watch the DVD whenevr you like. With cable, you have to wait until/if they run it again.

One season of a series runs for about 22~30 days, which ends up being a month anyway.

[Borgnine]

21. The Ad Council.

My cable company puts Ad Council ads over many of the normal network ones. While the Ad Council makes commercials with good messages, it doesn't change the fact that they're annoying as hell and run during every other break.

Among their commercials...

-A kid talks to a sock. This somehow translates to after-school programs.

-A gang of leather-clad pigmen have invaded a family's house. This somehow translates to energy conseveration.

-A kid screams into a bullhorn from a school bus, holding up loud, beeping traffic. This noisy mess translates into staying in school.

[Kellanved]

22. The fact that I am paying for it and can't get out of the contract,

plus that mine has a lousy signal quality.
The icing: all interesting channels and almost all uninteresting ones are part of the new free digital terrestrial broadcasting service anyway.

[Ladyhawk]

23. Other: the programming sucks and I can't afford it.

Since I can't get DISH here, I have been without TV since October-ish. I do miss Discovery affiliates, but always avoided cable news and those stupid "reality" shows. God, I hate those things. :)

[Bossy Monkey]

26. Well, I can see that as ever I'm totally out of step with the DU...

as regards popular culture.:D

[MrSandman]

27. Other...57 Channels and nothing on...nt

[Bossy Monkey]

37. More like 200; somebody tell Bruce n/t

[MrSandman]

41. 57 (metaphorical) channels...

[gizmo1979]

28. I hate paying for channels I never watch

when are they going to come up with a service where I can pay foer only the channels I actually watch?

[u4ic]

30. There's way too many I don't watch

and some channels have gone to the dogs...why are monster trucks pulls/races on The Learning Channel????

[yellowdogintexas]

29. having a lot of channels that I don't really watch, like all the

ESPN, MTV, VH1, Spanish channels,and so on.

OTOH, I am absolutely positive that there are folks out there that wouldn't mind if the stuff I like a lot disappeared from their cable so I would say it comes out pretty even in the long run.

[Dave Reynolds]

31. Price to channel ratio.

I pay 70 bucks a month for digital plus HBO.

Waiting for my satellite dish....

[Left Is Write]

32. I have cable internet but not cable TV.

We have satellite TV.

[Digit]

35. There is STILL nothing to watch

I hate sports.
The BS they pass as news is a joke.
Now they are censoring language on old movies.
The amount of commercials on many of the channels cause me to lose interest in the show.

[VOX]

36. I think we need a few more shopping channels...

the 27 existing ones :grr: just don't seem get me going!
:crazy:

[progmom]

38. arranger Billy Mays?

I prefer Axel Stordhal or Nelson Riddle.

[Bossy Monkey]

39. Billy Mays is a pitchman who YELLS REAL LOUD

Didn't the other Billy Mays work on Stan Freberg records? He was really great!

[Radical Activist]

40. I have to pay money for 57 chanels I will never watch in my life. n/t

[ronnykmarshall]

42. The damn cables!

[meow2u3]

43. Do we really have to PAY to watch commercials?

What next? Commercials interrupting the Sopranos? Pay-per-view movies?

[Maine-ah]

44. cost. damn it's expensive.

[Fleshdancer]

45. too expensive and most of it is crap

If I could just pay for the following and get nothing else I would be a happy gal:

Bravo
Comedy Channel
History Channel
Food Network
HBO
CSPAN

Cable just isn't worth the money when I watch such a small amount of what it offers. That's one of the reasons why I cancelled it.