Call the cable TV provider in your area, because you’re going to want broadband Internet for the upcoming “Streaming Wars”.

When Dish Network satellite TV bought the failing Blockbuster video, many wondered how Dish would turn it into a money maker.   Well, the first attempt is being made as we speak.  After Netflix announced significant price hikes to come, Dish Network saw an opportunity to grab new customers.

Netflix took its single disc/streaming video product and broke it into two products.  What was once $9.99 a month for both is now $7.99 a month per product.  Obviously, Netflix users are miffed.  Dish Network offers a one disc rental package for $9.99, but the Blockbuster package does not include streaming video.  At least not yet.
However, according to a BizJournals.com article, Dish Network satellite TV / Blockbuster video feels customers would switch from Netflix for early access to new releases and video game rentals.  The Blockbuster package is $2 more a month than the single disc package from Netflix, so only time will tell.  What’s more important, saving $2 or having access to newer new releases and video games?

After winning a successful bid for the rights to broadcast the world renown tennis tournament, ESPN has made history by bringing the tournament solely to cable TV providers for the first time ever.  At the same time, you tennis fans will have to make sure you’re up to date with the cable TV providers in your area.

Moving the entire tournament over to cable TV for the first time ever, NBC lost the rebroadcast rights to ESPN at the culmination of the final game this year.   As reported by AdWeek, ”Terms of the 12-year pact were not disclosed, although the deal will move all live coverage of Wimbledon to cable for the first time. That said, some tape-delayed matches will air on ABC, including replays of the men’s and women’s finals. The broadcaster will also air a three-hour highlight show on the middle Sunday of the tournament.”

The move ends the 43 year relationship between Wimbledon and NBC.  Although, it seem there is no ill will.  NBC recognizes that ESPN was simply willing to spend more to retain the rights to broadcast the tournament on cable TV.

Is Allconnect a trend setter?  Perhaps. For a while now, Allconnect has offered you a way to bundle and save with the choices you want^SM .  That simply means you can choose your providers and services based on your needs, not the available bundles, and it looks like we were on to something.

A recent Nielsen study shows consumers are in favor making their own bundles.  While cable TV providers are still the majority in paid TV subscriptions, satellite TV providers are closing the gap.  One reason satellite TV subscriptions are on the rise is the recent trend in creating your own bundle.  With services like Allconnect, consumers can choose a satellite TV package and pair it with cable Internet service.  It offers choice and, in some cases, the best of both worlds.

Let’s say you prefer your local satellite TV package over your local cable TV package, but you would rather have the higher speed of a cable Internet connection.  Well, now you can.  With Allconnect, you can create your own bundle.

Enter your address in the “Find Savings” widget to see what’s available in your area.

“How can I find cable companies in my area?”  ”What’s the best plan for me and my family?”

Sound familiar?  Prices are going up on everything from groceries to gas and entertainment costs have been steadily rising for years.  With that in mind, many of us are taking a serious look at our finances.  What services are more of a necessity these days?

Cable TV providers were once thought to be more of a luxury than a necessity.  Anynore, that’s changed.  Broadband Internet and cable TV are the norm for a lot of the country and many find it hard to cut off either.  So what do you do?  You take a long, hard look at your finances and make an honest assessment of what you can afford.

Maybe you don’t really need to subscribe to every movie channel.  Or maybe you could do better with a cable TV plan from another provider.  But there’s that question again.  ”How can I find cable companies in my area?”  That’s the easy part.  Just enter your address into the “Find Savings” widget at the top of the page.  We’ll show you which cable TV providers offer service at your specific address.  Then it’s up to you to compare plans and prices to find the plan best suited to your family and budget.

In a report for Variety, Tom Lowry sheds light on a somewhat shocking report that discusses the real competition for cable TV companies and satellite TV providers.  Lowry’s article discusses a recent report, “U.S. Telecommunications and Cable & Satellite: The Poverty Problem,” by Craig Moffett, an analyst for Sanford Bernstein.  In that report, Moffett says inter industry rivalry is not the problem.  Nor is the growing online movie and TV market the problem.  The real problem is more likely to be the decline in American livelihood.

While there have been signs of economic recovery, Moffet’s report points out the harsh reality of government assistance and below average incomes for many Americans.  Sadly, that means many families are choosing, not between providers, but between necessities.  What’s more important, TV or food and shelter?

Luckily, cable TV companies and satellite TV providers are not ignorant of the problem.  Lowry uses Time Warner Cable as an example.  Time Warner Cable created an economy cable TV package geared toward budget minded consumers.  While it may not have all the bells and whistles of the premium cable TV packages, it does offer the escape allowed by TV entertainment with a more affordable price tag.

While Moffett’s report may seem bleak, it does remind us that options are available.  If you’re looking to find more affordable cable TV or satellite TV plans in your area, start here.  Enter your address in the “Find Savings” widget at the top of the page.  We’ll show you what’s available at your address.  From there, you can compare plans and prices online free of charge.  When you’re ready, choose the plan that’s right for you.

You may remember a story we discussed a while back concerning Dish Network and DIRECTV.  It was about the two dominant satellite TV providers teaming up with a subscriber to sue the state of Utah over what they claim is a tax break given only to cable TV providers.

Well, according to Multichannel News, “Rep. James Sensenbrenner (R-Wis.) and two co-sponsors have introduced the State Video Fairness Act of 2011, which is being celebrated by DISH and DIRECTV as a bill to ‘protect consumers and promote competition by preventing the imposition of discriminatory taxes on satellite television and other innovative competitors to cable television.’”

Of course, the cable TV providers feel slighted.  Cable TV operators claim the 1996 Telecommunications Act contains a huge loophole that allows the satellite TV providers to bypass local taxes – taxes cable TV operators have to pay.

Although it may feel like progress for the satellite TV providers, the battle is sure to continue.

In recent years, we have seen a slow, but steady increase in available broadband Internet speeds.  It wasn’t that long ago that dial-up Internet access was all the rage.  Now, we’re talking about Internet download speeds of 50mbps or more.

A lot has changed with the ever increasing capability of high speed Internet.  Businesses have been made and businesses have been scuttled, all on the power of the Internet.  The latest make or break market appears to be online TV, or “TV Everywhere” as it is known.  While companies like Netflix are busy streaming thousands of movies and TV shows from multiple sources, networks like HBO are using broadband Internet to deliver their own shows to their subscribers.  It seems slow at times, but all of this happening at a rather rapid pace.

The latest company to attempt the TV Everywhere model appears to be You Tube.  According to an article on CNBC, You Tube will begin renting newer, big budget movie titles.  You Tube has been renting for a while now, but the selection has been slim and dated.  While Google has not turned You Tube into the money maker we all thought it would become,  this new online renting plan aims to add money to the bank.  CNBC claims “Google sees a problem with the fact that people spend an average of just 15 minutes on YouTube each day and five hours watching TV. So, it’s populating its movie rentals with behind-the-scenes movie extras and links to reviews, so its users don’t click away to IMDB.com or Rotten Tomatoes.com.”  The plan is to keep visitors on You Tube, increasing exposure to valuable advertising dollars.

Competition seems to offer the best products for consumers, so expect online movies and TV shows to only get better as the competition increases.

Suddenlink cable TV and high speed Internet has made a couple of big announcements over recent days.  While it certainly doesn’t affect a far reaching audience, it is good news to the local communities and a glimmer of hope for other rural areas.

First, according to Victor Godinez on the Dallas News Tech Blog, Suddenlink announced plans to roll out faster broadband Internet to a few rural communities outside Dallas, Texas.  The new areas could see speeds up to 50mbps in the next month or so with cheaper Internet plans in the 20, 10 and 15mbps range.  While the new speed doesn’t cover the nation, or even all of Texas, it is good to see a cable Internet provider reaching out to the more rural areas.  Perhaps we will see braodband Internet nationwide in the near future.

In other news, A post from Todd Spangler at Broadcast & Cable reports Suddenlink has also announced plans to offer HBO GO, the TV everywhere service from HBO, to all of its HBO subscribing customers.   Even better, the HBO GO service is free for current HBO subscribers on any high speed Internet connection.

After the switch to all digital broadcasts from your local cable TV providers, you are likely familiar with the small, black boxes known as digital transport adapters (DTAs).  Several cable TV providers were providing these adapters free of charge in order to get their customers ready for the big switch that started back in June, 2009.

As many of us found out, the DTAs were no frills utilitarian connection boxes.  There was an incoming connector for the cable cord coming from your wall and another leading out to your analog TV.  The whole idea was to allow you to keep using your analog TV, so you didn’t have to run out and buy a new digital ready TV.  It seems to have worked as planned.  Those of us with analog TVs were able to enjoy the new digital broadcasts without interruption (in most cases).  However, these DTA boxes were in no way comparable to the DVR or HD DVR boxes you could rent from the cable TV providers.  Well, that is slowly changing.

Comcast cable TV is beginning to offer a more appealing DTA box.  According to a story from Broadcasting & Cable, Comcast cable TV “plans to roll out an HD version of the DTAs and is even testing a way to deliver program-guide info to them.”  While HD DTAs would be nice in some households, I think we could all agree that the program-guide info is the most missed feature.  Finally being able to see what’s coming up later in the day is a cable TV essential and it will be a welcomed addition to any set top box.

A recent article from TV Week brought a home a realization, an epiphany, if you will.  The article discusses how the different channels airing the March Madness games are all but sold out of ad space.  March Madness is upon us.  College basketball team will soon be all over your TV.  so you’ve got to ask yourself, is your TV ready for March Madness?

Sure, the physical representation of your TV is in question.  Is your screen large enough to truly enjoy each and every game you can possibly catch over the next month?  Size does matter, but so does quality and that’s where we switch from your actual television to your provider.  Are you setup to catch every game?  Does your provider offer all the channels?  Do you currently subscribe to all those channels?  You better get on the ball.

According to TV Week, Mach Madness college basketball games will be shown on CBS, TBS, TNT, and TruTV.  TruTV?  Yes, college hoops will be shown on the network formerly known as Court TV.   It seems like the majority of those channels would be included in your basic cable channel lineup.  However, your digital switchover box may not tune into every channel.    That may be an error or a glitch in the box, but it  could also be your subscription, or lack thereof.  Either way, it makes sense to call up your provider to make sure you can access all the games no matter the channel.

For that matter, it may be a good time to make the jump from over the air digital signals to subscription based programming.  Depending on you area, you’ll have to decide which product is best for you:  cable TV providers, satellite TV providers or telco based products like AT&T U-Verse or Verizon FiOS.  Whatever you choose, do it soon.  Tipoff is just around the corner.