On the brink of changing cable TV provider

A little over two decades ago, I was lured by a modern attraction called cable television. I subscribed with Cebu Cable TV. Considering that when I was barely out of teens, I worked as the programming in-charge of the then ABC R/TV Channel 5, the cable TV was such a quantum leap in technology that awed me no end. Early in my subscription, I would sit in front of the television set to watch worldwide events brought to my living room in full color by CNN and BBC, two of my favorite stations. There was also a sports channel and a host of companies broadcasting hit movies. Oh yes, the package was complete.

As initially advertised, cable television did away with commercials. Indeed, I was so ignorant with its business that I did not know how it could survive without advertising revenue. That, in a manner of speaking, spelled the difference. News and other events were aired without advertisements wrecking havoc on continuity. Even full-length movies were shown almost like in the movie houses because the station breaks came in sparingly and only for few seconds in each time. On the whole, uninterrupted telecast made watching cable television pleasurable.

In the early years of the operation of cable television, I had only one subscription. Splitters though were allowed and available such that the cable reached all of our bedrooms. The choice was there for anyone to watch his kind of show without disturbing the others.

Later, the cable TV company I have subscribed with got wiser. It would not allow the splitters anymore. If we wanted a connection to our rooms we had to pay a junction box for each room. What was one payment for our entire home then became tripled. Simply because we enjoyed the perk, we had to pay the price.

I was an elementary pupil when I began to like basketball and boxing. When, for instance, the Philippines participated in the 1968 Mexico Olympics, I had to wake up at dawn to listen to the intermittent signals of radio on how Rojas and Marquez wowed basketball fans. I had to suffer the heartbreak when radio broadcast the defeat of boxer Teogenes Peregrino in the quarter finals. Cable television changed all that when it showed the 1992 Barcelona games live.

When the NBA opened for the 2012-2013 season, BTV (Basketball TV, of course!) delighted me with live games. Solar Sports, Fox Sports and Star Sports joined the fray by showing those games that BTV could not carry. In other words, we witnessed how the regular season evolved by watching, thru cable television, our favored teams play.

Of late though, Sky Cable, my carrier, started withdrawing live NBA shows from its regular sports channel. (By the way, it is also airing commercials on CNN programs). If it is not criminal, the timing is very bad because we are now in the semi finals. What is lately shown extensively are the analysis of the game's great players. Sky Cable should know that its subscribers would rather see Lebron James strut his ware on the basketball court, rather than listen to how Charles Barkley, in a three piece suit, review Lebron's performance.

It is not difficult to discern that the cable television company is after the money side of it. It is transferring the live games to a premium channel where we, of course, have to pay premium rates, on top of what we are now being charged with. If we want to continue seeing live games, we have to fork additional dough.

Well, it is not per se wrong, for Sky Cable to make money where it can. It is business. Because I want to watch live NBA games, I have to pay premium. But, I feel I cannot afford it. Or even if it is within my means, I cannot tolerate this underhanded tactic.

Tomorrow, I intend to look for another cable TV company. If there is one that shows live NBA games without charging me additional premium rates, I will terminate the three subscriptions I have maintained with Sky Cable for more than 2 decades. Who knows, I might get a better deal there.