What’s Gotta Go

Who is the genius that decided pay per view was a good idea? Ok, here’s what really bothers me; what kind of moron do the marketing departments of every major cable and satellite provider think I am to believe that having tons of PPV channels in my “package” is really providing me any kind of added value?

I’m already forced to pay out the nose for the “luxury” of the basic package on Dish Network. What started out a $19.95 deal, plus locals, plus taxes, etc. has grown to over $40 for their basic package. As a side note, it really bothers me they keep advertising the $19.95 rate when they automatically bump you in rates after you are on for a bit. I really don’t watch a wide variety of programs, news, sports Discovery & TLC are the top watched channels in my line up. I’ll catch a few shows on the broadcast networks, USA, TNT, and TLC round off what I ever really tune in to. In that limited viewing line up, though, Dish find it necessary to continually barrage me with ads for what they have playing on PPV.

Movies, fights and “adult” programming are not things I will ever pay additional cash to see. Wrestling…give me a break. Seeing the rates on some of these “events” takes me beyond annoyed to downright flabbergasted that people will pay such a bounty. PPV is big business though, so it is here to stay. Dish is so dedicated to the cash cow that they often preempt regularly scheduled commercials with their PPV ads. You know they are preempting because so often the tech at some mast command center is half a second late so you can see that the video professor is being bumped to show me that TNA has their big event coming up for the bargain of $39.95.

So why do I deal with it? I am in an area that just flat out doesn’t get broadcast TV without placing some enormous structure on my roof that the city would likely deny on some zoning restriction anyway. TV is a luxury for sure, we went without as a family for a year and honestly really didn’t miss it for the most part. We might just go back to that situation. Watching the best programs on DVD when they come out is a much better experience anyway. We might just go back to our unhooked TV bliss.

I guess I have to accept that PPV is here to stay, but I can fight back. My redemption is the DVR. I’ll never pay for a PPV event, and I skip every last bit of commercials I can by rarely watching anything live. Yeah, that’s sticking it to the man.