All those new satellite dish ads may be getting some consumers confused.
Many are not aware that "satellite TV" subscriptions are on a per television set basis! If you have two or more televisions in your home and if you want full service on them, then you'll need to spend hundreds of additional dollars on equipment to make each set work. For example, if you want to watch a football game in your den while someone else watches the news in the bedroom-both sets have to be equipped to receive the satellite signals separately. And there are extra program subscription charges on a per set basis, too.By way of comparison, most cable television service offers a "whole house" solution, providing independent signals to each of your television sets at little or no extra cost. And speaking of cost, you should also know that the most popular satellite dish service subscriber pays an average of $65.00 per month, while the average cable customer pays about $35.00.
You have to read the satellite TV ads very carefully!
175 channels? 75 channels? For $29.95? No, not really.More than half of the "175 Channels" you see advertised are "blacked out" until you pay extra for them-in some cases, a lot extra. You're paying for the "right" to pay some more. In fact, you don't really even get to watch 75 channels for the $29.95 they're advertising. Over 30 of those "channels" are radio-style music channels-not video. And by the way, stereo critics say the sound quality is not as good as your home CD player.
Despite big ad claims, the truth is that the most popular satellite dish service actually delivers fewer than 50 video channels for $29.95 per month. Those channels don't include local broadcast networks and that price doesn't include equipment or installation costs. Before you buy a small satellite dish, carefully read the descriptions of what you're getting, and for how much!
Some consumers are finding out too late that satellite TV only delivers half of what most folks are watching.
Even with the vast array of new cable channels attracting viewers, the local broadcast television networks (ABC, CBS, NBC and FOX) still get over 50 percent of the average viewing audience. While cable customers get those local broadcast networks along with the newer cable channels as part of their cable service, "satellite TV" delivers only a portion of what viewers say they want. No local TV channels are available.In fact, thousands of satellite TV subscribers have been sold packages with "distant" network TV signals that then had to be "blacked out" when it was discovered the networks were sold to them improperly. And many of those subscribers had paid for a year of service in advance.
Be careful. It seems those "pizza-sized" satellite dishes deliver only half of the pie!
(NAPSI)
