Will You, Too, Join the Cult of Satellite TV?

Have you ever noticed how satellite TV subscribers seem to live in groups? Really...take a look at a subdivision, and notice how 5-6 dish owners all live next to one another - it's like some sort of weird cult when you think about it! I have seen entire subdivisions go "the way of the dish" in a few short months. So why does this "grouping" phenomenon seem to happen with satellite TV? There aren't any doctoral theses on the subject, but I would like to offer an educated guess: Basically, people are fed up with cable. And hey, an odd-looking satellite TV dish perched atop your neighbor's roof one day is bound to spark your curiosity. After striking up a conversation and hearing about all the great things that a dish satellite TV system has to offer subscribers, it is easy to see how a domino effect could start in a neighborhood. Once one brave soul decides to take the plunge and subscribe to satellite TV, the rest will soon follow. It's just a theory, but I think we might just have a story here, Houston. What makes satellite TV so great anyway? Are you bored with the selection offered by your cable provider or just plain tired of paying through the nose for the channels you actually watch? A dish satellite TV system provides viewers with a greater selection of channels for less money than cable - period. Cable companies may try to lure customers in with low introductory rates, but they always rise after a few short months - and hey, why should you pay more for worse selection with cable, when satellite TV gives more for less? Oh come now...there has to be a catch around here somewhere! Hey, that's smart thinking! And yes, there are always tradeoffs when choosing satellite TV over cable. The first is that a dish satellite TV system tends to lose signal during storms. Without question, that could really put you in a bad mood if you get cut off while watching the latest episode of 'Desperate Housewives'. But the good news is that satellite TV technology continues to improve, so the weather will cease to be an issue within a very short time. Although subscribers to satellite TV do have to put up with lost signal every once in awhile, the same can be said of cable - and the extra channels and lower cost more than compensate for this inconvenience. The second major drawback of satellite TV is the lack of local programming. Personally, I never bother with the local news anyway, and I'm not a big high school football fan, so the lack of these local channels on my dish satellite TV system doesn't bother me. But some satellite TV companies are making deals with local programming affiliates in larger markets to help eliminate this gripe. Still, it is another disadvantage of using satellite TV instead of cable. Can you live without those local channels? Probably...at least for a week or two! Satellite providers are addressing the two main complaints against a dish satellite TV system. But even if you accept these two drawbacks to satellite TV, the advantages simply outweigh the problems. And besides - satellite TV is the future. So don't be surprised if you find yourself joining the Cult of Satellite TV one day - even if you are a die-hard cable fan - because the technology continues to improve, and the problems become fewer.