To the Editor:
Buyer beware. I would like to submit a suggestion to our Public Service Commission, or whatever they call the authority that oversees Cable TV providers. My suggestion is that they make these companies be more transparent about what they are selling us. I have used companies like Spectrum, Brighthouse, Cox, DirectTV, Dish Network, and Xfinity, and I have been very disappointed with all of them. They sell you on the number of channels you will get and the variety of programming. What they don’t tell you is that most of your channel lineup consists of duplicate, and even triplicate, channels.
The typical channel lineup is for basic analog channels which are then duplicated as high-definition channels, and some of those channels are even triplicated again up in higher numbered guide listings. Another facet of that same package is the ‘shopping channels.’ I actually sat there and went through my channel lineup. I had the ‘185-channel package’ and listed each channel, and there were 61 shopping channels. To break that down, there were 37 unique channels: 24 of those were duplicated at a different channel and 10 more were triplicated again under other channel listings. This is all being sold to us as ‘variety in programming’ when it is actually the same channels that are duplicated and triplicated.
Thomas King
Ocala resident