RANT

If you don't live in the NY/NJ area or the tri-state area that includes Connecticut this is one time that you should be jumping for joy. We are, how shall I say this, inflicted, cursed, damned, with Cablevision. Until very recently that was the only way you could get cable television. I give away my age when I say that I'm still pissed that I have to pay for tv to anyone but nevertheless, if you want a clear picture and semi-regular service when you turn on the box...it's a Cablevision world I live in. I'm given to understand that it's now possible to get something else but I haven't heard any great things about them either. The problem is that Cablevision is a monopoly here. It's their ball and they can make you stop playing if they want. I have friends who tried the Dish. We live next to the ocean on an island that is damp and prone to thunder and lightening storms. Dish doesn't make the grade.
About a year ago Cablevision took away a number of our stations...just like that, some 9-10 stations disappeared over night. Six months ago they took away several others like Lifetime, travel channel, AMC, We, and a bunch more. No notice...just gone. Mind you, we are still paying the same bill-only with many less channels. New Years day Cablevision got into a pissing contest with the Food Network, HGTV and something else I can't remember. THE FOOD NETWORK.....GONE into the ether- No warning. Here's the reasoning from both sides. The Scripps Howard Co. that makes FN & HGTV wanted to raise their rate for sending those things to be re-broadcast by Cablevision. The current price that Scripps was getting for FN is around 15 cents per viewer-HGTV is around 40-ish cents. Scripps wants more money. I don't really blame them and I'd gladly pay a bit more for the FN. Here's a link to an article in the NY Daily News explaining it far better than I. My really angry point is, since Cablevision took all these channels in the last year and a half-why the hell can't they pick up the cost by including it in the volume of mega bucks they got when many others decided to pay for more expensive premium packages so they wouldn't lose the aforementioned networks I listed above. I have such hatred in my heart for this company. My friend called their office to complain and ask why they took even more stations off the air to regular subscribers and she was told, in a snotty tone, "because we can!"
Anyway, I'm sort of pissed at Scripps too. They simply removed their connections and are running an add every five minutes on all channels blaming Cablevision. There's plenty of blame to go around. They didn't need to make the channel unavailable either. They could have continued to allow broadcasting while negotiations went on. It's like to very evil twins are destroying everything in their path to get the biggest piece of candy.
I know this is a small blip in life in light of all that seems wrong in the world today but it just seems to add that piece of straw that breaks the elephants back. We pay a LOT of money for the privileged of getting a bunch of crappy channels. Now the cable companies monitor your viewing so they know what makes you happiest and they will be charging you a premium for it. It's happening in my neck of the woods but you can be sure it's coming to your hometown any time now. Other cable and dish companies are watching Cablevision and they see what one can get away with. What I can't figure out is why this isn't in some way illegal and fodder for a class action suit. We signed up and pay for a service that is now missing up to 15 of the channels that were in the package we signed up for. Where is the pro-rated bill for all those missing stations?

Cablevision, and to a certain degree Scripps Howard, are horrible companies but that seems to be the nature of the beast and it's a bully that can't be beaten. I really hate that and I hate not having ANY recourse to this problem.

Sorry for the rant but it just boils over now and then. We will resume our regular programming tomorrow. I got some baby quilt fabric today to add to the cute stuff I bought before Christmas. I needed a couple of soft colors to add to the mix and I found them today.