First, let’s see some differences between cable and satellite TV. Cable TV has been around since 1948 whereas satellite TV has only been around since 1978. This has given most people 30 more years to fall in love with their cable TV vs their satellite TV. Once you have something for a long period of time, you tend to hold on to it dearly. Could this be one reason that cable users stay with cable longer than satellite? It is a possibility that we will view later on in this article.
Physical Differences Between Satellite & Cable
- Satellite TV uses 3 satellites, one in space that uses a geostationary orbit, one at the user’s home, and one at the business location. You can get a lot more information on satellite and different packages at direct-sale.com . The signal goes from the business location to the satellite in space which in turns sends a digital signal back to earth (to the satellite) at the user’s home. User dish is usually compact (about the size of a meter wide beach ball) to receive this signal from the satellite in space.
- Cable TV comes to us through coaxial or fiber optic cables that transmit radio frequency (RF) to our TVs. They usually run on the same poles as telephone lines or can be run underground for cosmetic purposes.
Price Points Satellite vs. Cable
- Satellite TV average cost $29.99 with around 126 channels
- Cable TV average cost $39.99 with around 52 channels
Yes, this is for the very basic services that is for sure and a proper comparison will help understand this better. As you can tell here, it is not the price that is causing satellite viewer to stream, is it? You would think number one reason would be the price, but here we show you an average of monthly costs of satellite is significantly lower than cable.
Services Between Satellite vs Cable
The big thing with satellite that you hear is when it is overcast or rainy, satellite is sporadic whereas cable TV is more consistent and weather plays no real role in the consistency of cable TV. Here too depends really on where you live, the company that you use, etc. As for customer service this too depends on your provider.
In Conclusion
Therefore what else could we look at in order to conclude this dilemma of more satellite viewers defecting to streaming? How about by generation? Forbes talks about how younger people are not signing up for cable these days. Oh yes, that pesky generation gap. Could it be that Baby Boomers prefer watching TV via cable rather than satellite? Baby Boomers generally like less complicated things in their lives. Why can a 3 year old (Generation Z) automatically use a smartphone while Baby Boomers are completely lost? Complexity is not their forte.
Generation Y & Z prefers smartphones, tablets, satellite and since they do prefer satellite they would in turn more likely use streaming than the Baby Boomers.
Generation Y & Z have little time for TV and since they have little time for TV, they do not have the time to wait for a specific TV program time in order to watch something of interest. Consequently they prefer to go to sites like Netflix and stream at their own convenience, and put satellite and cable on the back burners of life.
Overall, both these services have their own advantages and loyal customers and it will not be fair to highlight any one service. This is more of a case of individual taste.
