09-12-2003 00:03									#1
	Cox Cable attempts to live up to its name Enter the AD-FREE zone

Did you know these bastards are trying to remove ESPN from basic cable service? Check this out...

http://msn.espn.go.com/gen/espncablestanceindex.html

If they remove ESPN I can assure you my cable will be cancelled on the same day.

	09-12-2003 00:07									#2
	Browse Apolyton AD-FREE

They still have good cable modem service...

	09-12-2003 00:09									#3
	Support Apolyton or Terrorists Win

Shoot, I was hoping this was about their starting a gay porn channel.

	09-12-2003 00:10									#4
	Tired of ads?

roflmao

no espn? Hello satellite.

	09-12-2003 00:12									#5
	Avatar Enlargement: We've got the solution

That would suck.

Our cable company just started offering ESPND (HDTV) in our area.
It is WONDERFUL. I find myself watching a lot of games in HD that I would never have watched before.

	09-12-2003 00:13									#6
	Remove this text

quote: Originally posted by rah That would suck.

So would my scenario.

	09-12-2003 00:14									#7
	Lose 30 kilos (of popups)

rich bastard

	09-12-2003 00:18									#8
	Increase the size of your Attachments

Boris, Eeeeeeeeeeeeiw.

Imran, Not rich, just willing to pay for quality entertainment. But seeing that my cable bill runs about 150 a month, you may be right.

	09-12-2003 00:18									#9
	Enter the AD-FREE zone

quote: Originally posted by Boris Godunov Shoot, I was hoping this was about their starting a gay porn channel.

one can dream boris

	09-12-2003 00:21									#10
	Tired of ads?

nothing like seeing that action right up front on the big screen...

oh, and the athletic contests are good also.

	09-12-2003 00:21									#11
	Support Apolyton or Terrorists Win

quote: But seeing that my cable bill runs about 150 a month, you may be right.

Hehehe... that's what I thought .

I have little, but I pay $100/mo. ... of course that includes my cable modem.

	09-12-2003 00:22									#12
	Support Apolyton, buy Galactic Civilizations: Deluxe Edition

Jesus, is cox really that stupid? ESPN is essential to life! not only would i miss the latest scores and whatnot, id also miss out on the sunday night game, and all the college sports.

	09-12-2003 00:24									#13
	Support Apolyton or Terrorists Win

I'm guessing you guys should start a letter writing campaign or something. ESPN is ESSENTIAL for basic cable. It is one of those networks (along with Comedy, Travel, CNN, SpikeTV and Food) why basic cable actually makes sense .

	09-12-2003 00:26									#14
	Tired of ads?

ahh I was going to make a thread on this. I wasn't sure if this was just a local thing where I live. But I do realize Cox cable goes all the way to the east coast- I had it in Newport News, VA.

In any case I think there is enough blame for both sides. ESPN is the most expensive station on basic cable. And these athletes high paychecks are requiring NFL, NBA to charge ESPN more to carry live games. And if ESPN doesn't carry live games they won't be much of a sport channel. So these costs trickle on down to the cable companies because advertising cannot cover the costs.

Personally I don't care that much. I live in a city where you can watch the game at a local bar or sports book. Though I would prefer to watch the game in the comfort of my own home. But aside from football coverage I hardly watch ESPN, and will not pay extra for it.

	09-12-2003 00:27									#15
	Increase the size of your Attachments

Yeah, mine includes my cable modem also and all the Showtimes, HBOs, Starzs, TMCs, Skinimaxs and a host of other premium channels. Add the HDTV package for another 10 a month and it adds up quickly.

AND IT"S WORTH EVERY PENNY.

It's an outgrowth from when our daughter was growing up and we could NEVER go out. (I now wonder about that)

	09-12-2003 00:30									#16
	Avatar Enlargement: We've got the solution

quote: Originally posted by Boris Godunov Shoot, I was hoping this was about their starting a gay porn channel.

Well, they do cover wrestling on ESPN, don't they?

	09-12-2003 00:31									#17
	Support Apolyton, buy GURPS/ Alpha Centauri

mine is $104. That includes cable modem- I bought my cable modem, I don't rent it. I have digital cable and HBO is my only premium channel.

Far too expensive. I just got it under $100 a few months ago by cancelling showtime, but they raised the rates again . I would prefer to keep it under $100, but oh well. Maybe I'll get rid of the digital cable- but I like being able to push the info button to figure out what I'm watching

	09-12-2003 00:40									#18
	Support Apolyton, buy GURPS/ Alpha Centauri

Our modem is included free with the 45.99 monthly charge. They've upgraded ours three times and tell us to throw away the old ones. The last time they sent us a free webcam and lots of software to do the upgrade ourselves to save their installers time. The instructions were about 50 pages long, which I ingored, and did the upgrade in about 60 seconds.

	09-12-2003 00:52									#19
	Support Apolyton

Funny coincidence. I just changed my cable modem saturday (charter cable) and of course my home LAN no longer had access to the web. After much trial and error, and eventually getting someone at charter-help who actually knew the difference between his head and his ass (and could therefore confirm my suspicions) I had to buy a new router ($100). At least the speed seems very good I was downloading some stuff at an average of >250KB yesterday.

EDIT I pay $120 for everything

	09-12-2003 01:31									#20
	Lose 30 kilos (of popups)

quote: It's an outgrowth from when our daughter was growing up and we could NEVER go out. (I now wonder about that)

So you provided your daughter with plenty of free porn on Showtime and Skinamax. I wish I had a dad like you .

	09-12-2003 01:40									#21
	Support Apolyton, buy Alpha Centauri

No, not my whole family, just me.

	09-12-2003 03:04									#22
	Full PM-box? Change here!

Cutting ESPN will be the last ruinous decision Cocks makes.

	09-12-2003 03:16									#23
	Help yourself to an AD-FREE life

I have DirectTV and have to pay an extra $10 for a suite of HD channels, including ESPN. I must say that ESPN HD is unbelievable. Really worth the extra dollars.

	09-12-2003 03:17									#24
	Support Apolyton, pre-order Civilization IV

The only worthwhile thing I've seen on ESPN was the recent Kasparov vs. Fritzx3d match.

	09-12-2003 03:52									#25
	Support Apolyton, buy Civilization 2

quote: Originally posted by rah It is WONDERFUL. I find myself watching a lot of games in HD that I would never have watched before.

Who cares what's on, as long as it looks so crisp.

	09-12-2003 04:07									#26
	Put an end to popups!

aw... I thought this was a thread bashing Fox news... get it? coks, fox?

	09-12-2003 05:01									#27
	Put an end to popups!

Stop sniffing paint Sava

	09-12-2003 05:24									#28
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You guys are buying into ESPN's misinformation campaign. Cox does not want to remove ESPN at all. ESPN has been increasing it's rates to the cable companies by 20% for the past five years and refuses to be put on a seperate tier a la HBO. Cox does not want to have to raise their customers cable bills. You guys should be fighting against ESPN, not Cox. Let's consider the ESPN things a bit further: Cox pays ESPN a monthly wholesale rate of $2.61 per customer. Over the last five years, ESPN has raised its prices by 20 percent annually; if this trend is allowed to continue ESPN could cost $10 per month in less than a decade.

For a more realistic view of the subject, consider these following quotations.

"The soaring cost of sports programming has pushed up cable rates, according to a study released yesterday by the General Accounting Office. The study showed that sports costs had soared 59 percent, while overall costs of cable programming had jumped 34 percent."
Excerpted from: Government Report Links Sports to Rising Cable Fees, 10/25/2003, The New York Times

"The biggest single contributor to the cable-TV price hike, the study found, comes from the additional cost of programming, particularly from sports networks like ESPN.... In May, ESPN announced a 20 percent rate increase to cable operators."
Excerpted from: Cable rates still sore subject; Report says competition benefits few, 10/25/2003, Chicago Tribune

Most customers do not watch ESPN, or even remotely care about it (myself included). Why should they be punished for ESPN's greed? I applaud Cox for this move.

	09-12-2003 05:27									#29
	Put an end to popups!

To understand the truth about what's going on between Cox and ESPN, check out the following link.

http://makethemplayfair.com/mtpf.cfm

A couple highlights

--Cox pays $2.61 per customer per month (or about $170 million per year) to distribute ESPN. ESPN is Cox's highest-priced standard-cable channel. In fact, it costs more than the price of the seven top-rated standard-cable networks combined.

--ESPN prices are disproportionate to their ratings. They account for approximately 18% of Cox's standard-cable programming costs, but only about 4% of standard-cable's prime-time viewing.

--In the past five years, the price of ESPN has risen three times greater than the price of the about 40 other major standard-cable networks.

	09-12-2003 05:28									#30
	Support Apolyton or Terrorists Win

quote: Cox does not want to remove ESPN at all. ESPN has been increasing it's rates to the cable companies by 20% for the past five years and refuses to be put on a seperate tier a la HBO. Cox does not want to have to raise their customers cable bills.

So are you saying Cox isn't removing ESPN? Because if they do not want to remove ESPN, they wouldn't.