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The Hawk Eye, Burlington, Iowa, Craig Neises column [The Hawk Eye, Burlington, Iowa :: ](Hawk Eye, The (Burlington, IA) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) March 14--I was not much older than 8, if even that, when cable television arrived in my hometown. My parents' house was wired for service and suddenly the world of entertainment expanded beyond the handful of channels available over the air. The cable box in the living room brought 24-hour news, the Chicago Cubs, reruns of syndicated shows and a plethora of children's programming. Mornings wouldn't have been the same without Bozo the Clown being piped in each morning on WGN. For reasons unknown, because I never saw the film, the HBO program guide booklet with Kris Kristofferson and Barbara Streisand in "A Star is Born" on the cover sticks in my memory. Bottom line, cable TV has been a part of my life practically all my life, and with only the exceptions of a few days here or there -- one difficult week at the longest -- associated with moving to a new place, I have not been without it. But with the march of technology, I sure wish I could be. I'm not talking about kicking TV out of my life. There's just too much good stuff on, and I don't watch nearly all of it. The parody of "Girls," the HBO hit show, on last weekend's "Saturday Night Live" was lost on me because I don't watch. "Game of Thrones." "The Walking Dead." Haven't seen them. Maybe I'm just not hip, but most of what I like is found on the broadcast networks, USA Network, History and Discovery. "The Black List," "Suits," "Mythbusters," "Vikings" and the reboot of "Cosmos" fill my DVR. Whatever. Turning on the TV, sitting up after the rest of the family has gone to bed and watching that episode of "NCIS" I didn't get to see at its regular time is an important part of my day. Yet I dream of being a cord-cutter. You've heard of them. They're the people who tell the cable company to come take back its set-top boxes in favor of finding TV entertainment entirely online. Between Netflix, Amazon Prime and Hulu Plus, network apps and websites and iTunes, it's possible. Seldom do we watch shows as they air anyway. On-demand and DVR services have seen to that. And with streaming, I haven't bought a DVD or rented one in forever. The thing that keeps me from pulling the trigger is live programs, namely news and sports. Mainly sports. There remains no way to get access to the games I want to see without a cable company -- or satellite provider -- as the middle man. Smartphone and tablet apps provide an avenue for changing that, but Mediacom, the local cable TV monopoly, has chosen not to offer access to those services. In the name of protecting their business model, the cable companies and the networks have worked it out so users of apps like WatchESPN have to be a cable subscriber to access available programs. OK, fine. I'm stuck with subscribing, but let me watch where I want on the device I want. Yet Mediacom, which last year applied a 250-gigabyte monthly cap on its Internet service, has deigned not to participate, meaning I can have the WatchESPN app on my iPad all I want, but I can't use it. And the ESPN app isn't the only one with that issue. I'd love to have the opportunity to watch shows I'm paying to have access to when I want, using the devices I want. With high-speed Internet, both wired and wireless, that is eminently possible. But the too-cozy relationship between the content creators and distributors -- Comcast owns NBC and its affiliated networks, for crying out loud -- keeps that from being a viable alternative. Congress makes noise now and again about requiring a la carte access to cable customers, a move that would allow consumers to pay for the services they want and leave the rest at the side of the road. It would be a welcome step. Regulating cable companies like telephone service and allowing competition, especially on the Internet side of the business, would be, too. What is really needed, though, is a disruptive player that can enter the marketplace with an innovative delivery system for time-delayed and live programs that would break the cable monopoly and permit viewers like me to have our TV, and watch it, too. Wherever the heck we please. ___ (c)2014 The Hawk Eye (Burlington, Iowa) Visit The Hawk Eye (Burlington, Iowa) at www.thehawkeye.com Distributed by MCT Information Services |