Why aren't third party cable tV converter boxes widely avail

[New Question]

The cable TV service companies appear to have monopolies on converter boxes.
Telephone companies have been known to lease and sell telephones to their
customers, but the customers can always go to electronics stores and by
their own telephones (bypassing to need to pay monthly telephone leasing
fees).

If third party cable TV converter boxes were widely available, customers
would not have to pay leasing fees to cable TV service companies.

 

[Michael A. Terrell]

New Question wrote:

The cable TV service companies appear to have monopolies on converter boxes.
Telephone companies have been known to lease and sell telephones to their
customers, but the customers can always go to electronics stores and by
their own telephones (bypassing to need to pay monthly telephone leasing
fees).

If third party cable TV converter boxes were widely available, customers
would not have to pay leasing fees to cable TV service companies.

What do you do when you own the box and it dies? How about when the
cable company adds more channels you can't get without buying a new
converter? Do you have any idea of the life expectancy of a cable
converter? I used to work for United Video Cablevision at their
Cincinnati, ohio office, and i repaired, modified, updated, reprogrammed
over 10,000 converters in four years.
--


Michael A. Terrell
Central Florida

 

[Don]

Probably more a case of the >79 channels being digital fare. Digital cable
and analog share the cable, but the receiver is different.


"New Question" <nq@nq.com> wrote in message
news:fcN%a.4580$mE5.1212@fe05.atl2.webusenet.com...

"CWatters" <colin.watters@pandora.be> wrote in message
news:E2J%a.71480$F92.8208@afrodite.telenet-ops.be...
Look at it this way... If shops sold car keys I wouldn't have to buy a
car.
I could just borrow yours whenever I like.

The lease fee (and advertising fees) pay for the cost of making programs
and
maintaining the network. The converter box (and or smart card depending
on
the system) acts as a security key to prevent people who haven't paid
from
watching programs for free.

Our Comcast service provides channels 0-78 without a box and channels 79
and
above with a box. Are all channels 79 and above consider premium channels
which require extra pay?