Golf 24/7

An historic event (or is it a historic event?) in my life occurred this week.  After many years of abstinence, I allowed myself to indulge in a long-waited, premium desire.

I got the Golf Channel.

A little background here:  I have cable, bundled with internet service.  I could do that with satellite TV, but I’m happy with the broadband internet speed I have, and that’s keeping me tethered to cable TV for now.

However, our cable provider, Mediacom, sucks when it comes to its basic cable TV channel lineup.  This is true for a lot of cable companies, still fighting against the a la carte model that internet TV inevitably will provide.  Still, I’ve been to plenty of other places that have different cable providers, and Mediacom’s basic cable channels are not robust by comparison.

This means that the basic cable service I’ve had for years is missing ‘premium’ channels that other providers consider basic.  This includes Golf Channel, ESPNU, and a few others.  (One of the others is Fox Business News, a/k/a the 1% Channel.  It’s beyond strange how this is considered a premium channel, while CNBC isn’t.)

Cheap bastard that I am, I’ve never paid the extra dough for home access to those so-called premium channels.  That ended this week with the effort of one phone call, in which I agreed to pay another $100 a year ($8 per month) for a premium sports and information package.

Ironically, I did this primarily for the ESPNU channel, because I don’t want to miss another bunch of good college basketball games this winter.  And I did it secondarily for The NFL Network, so I don’t miss those games this winter, either.

But the long-term crown jewel for me will be the Golf Channel.  A new ‘go-to’ for when there’s nothing else good to watch.  It’s already paying for itself with end-to-end coverage of the Australia Masters and next week’s Australian Open – two events I couldn’t have cared less about a few days ago!

Fore!

Bad TV

I hate my cable TV provider.

My cable TV provider is Mediacom.  They've had the Des Moines cable TV franchise for as long as I can remember.  Why, I don't know.  With luck, they'll get bought out by another provider soon.

I've been to enough other places in Iowa and beyond to know that Mediacom offers the worst basic channel selection compared to its competitors.  At the same cost, maybe more.  And their service is so-so at best.

Last week, they raised my monthly charge by 25%, because apparently my contract agreement expired.  Now I'm going to get the same, for more.  Great.

So why don't I do something about it?  Why don't I switch to satellite?

Because switching would be an even bigger pain in the neck.  Providers like Mediacom know this.  And regardless of whether I switch or not, I'm still stuck getting a bundle of channels I don't want, just to have the ones I do want.

It's hard to believe that in 2014, nobody has à la carte TV choices.  It's a conspiracy.

If I'm so lucky to live another 10 or so years to live, I look forward to having just the TV shows I want delivered to me, on demand, via my computer-TV.

Until then, I'll hate my cable TV provider.