For many people, watching television is a central part of their everyday lives. Indeed, Americans spent over 34 hours per week watching television during second-quarter 2012, according to Nielsen, the international firm that monitors consumer habits.
With folks spending so much time on watching television, a major question arises: What type of TV service is the best one for you? New York State Broad Program Office Director David Salway says that conducting comparison shopping might be a good start. With satellite, cable, and Internet TV options currently available (like digital TV with sky offers), viewers have a broad range of choices to compare.
Channels
Channel surfers may especially want to know whether satellite, cable, or Internet digital TV service provides the most viewing options for the money. However, are more channels really merrier? Salway explains that cable services generally have certain “channel tiers,” and may start with 100 channels and then increase up to 150 channels. He says that satellite offers the same type of choices, but sticks you with lots of stations you’ll probably never watch. Internet digital TV service may be the perfect answer to the prayers of those who want to avoid paying for lots of channels that they don’t watch, as Internet carriers typically make networks or channels available on an “a la carte” basis, according to Salway.
Sports programming is the one area in which Internet television pales in comparison to satellite TV, however.
Reception
The quality of reception of contemporary TV services is not totally free of fuzz. Several factors may impact the sharpness – or dullness – of your picture, even on a high-definition set. Satellite TV subscribers, for instance, may have to contend with Mother Nature’s wrath that may affect the reception capability of their dish. Mother Nature may inflict overcast or cloudy conditions that obstruct satellite signals, or she could send winds blowing that knock a satellite dish off-kilter (aka “misalignment”).