Satellite Television

Cable Satellite Television

While over the air television, also known as broadcast and terrestrial television, still exists, most homeowners subscribe to a provider of cable/satellite television. Today the consumer has more choices than ever, such as FIOS television, cable television, and satellite television. More choices has made the selection between satellite/cable television providers more difficult than ever.


When consumers inquire about the advantages of satellite television, they often receive information about the wide variety of programming that is offered by satellite/dish television providers. The truth is that today the programming packages offered by cable television and dish/satellite television providers are comparable.

A wide range of free programming is available to homeowners with large television satellite dishes. In addition to excellent signal quality, these dishes offer access to news and sports from around the world. However, the cost and practicality are prohibitive for most homeowners.

In direct comparison to cable TV, satellite television generally provides a much higher quality of picture and sound. In addition, satellite TV is all digital (picture and sound) on all channels. Cable is not and many of its channels exist on an analog tier.

However, most (if not all) cable providers are in the process of phasing out their analog tier and many of their analog channels are already duplicated on the digital tier. This is an advantage that will disappear over the next few years. It is a point to take into consideration if it matters that you have all channels in digital now.

One of the main deterrents keeping many cable TV customers from switching over to satellite TV is cable Internet service. Satellite Internet service is still vastly inferior to cable and DSL Internet services due to technological limitations. It is likely to remain this way for the foreseeable future. This is major factor for many consumer because coupling your cable Internet service with your cable television service often gives you a substantial discount.

For consumers to whom Internet service is not a concern, satellite television service and installation tends to be cheaper. In addition, satellite providers tend to provider installation and service to more rooms than is included in a default cable package. Many satellite providers also provide DVR and HDTV receivers at no additional charge.