DirecTV is currently who gets my money but I have thought often of going to cable because of the Video on Demand feature that allows you to watch shows that you want to watch on demand. My local cable company sends me a mailer every so often touting this feature that I cannot get with satellite.
That was interesting until I started looking in to what the service actually is. Most often what you get (all of the free VOD options in my area) is a re-run of a show that you can watch or record on the network during it's normal time slot. I love my DVR and use the thing to death. I can count for you on one hand the shows that I watch regularly so I record them all. I also add in certain things from time to time that I want to get a chance to watch later. It's called time shifting. I can't watch this show tonight at 8 so I will DVR it and watch it tomorrow night at 7. I love it.
This VOD service proposes to go one step further by allowing you to watch a program that you might have forgotten or not known about. Select it from the list and watch it right now regardless of your DVR settings. That's nice, but word comes today that Cox struck a deal to make fast forwarding through commercials a thing of the past on certain VOD content. While for today it is Cox and Disney in no time at all it will be all cable companies and all networks.
Let us not forget that cable networks are not solely reliant on ad sales to make their money like broadcast networks are. Cable and satellite networks all get a portion of your monthly charge to provide the content that you get through that cable or dish. When I watch shows at their regularly scheduled time I sit through the commercials. When I DVR I fast forward right through them. Cox has started something that will make VOD meaningless. Though Insight hasn't done it yet the fact that one greedy cable company has will keep me on the satellites.
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