A Light At the End of the Cox Cable Connection

[Snoopy the Celtics Beagle <snoopy@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I may end up being legitimately accused of hypocrisy, but I looked at the 
NBA options this year, and stumbled into something that may be of interest 
to sports fans--and you might have the NFL to thank for it.

As many of you know, Cox Cable is one of the holdouts in David Stern's NBA 
tv power play.  For any new people, when Stern broke NBAtv away from the 
NBA League Pass in the middle of last season, anyone not giving in to 
Stern's demand to carry the channel IN ADDITION to the pass was SOL 
when  it came to some of the Games Formerly On the League Pass--including 
playoff games.

To make things worse, during the playoffs, further disagreements kept Cox 
Cable from offering the free NBAtv preview.  At that time, various people 
at Cox and elsewhere indicated talks were ongoing.

Apparently, they're no longer talking, as recent inquiries to the state of 
the situations bring canned responses from all concerned.

Someone suggested Dish Network.  I called, but they were reticent to let me 
pay $60 a month as my finances are less than stellar.  However, they would 
have happily offered service if I forked over $450 up front.   Even MY math 
saw that one coming, and I hung up.

So I called DirecTV.

And thereby found NBA salvation--from the NFL.

You see, if you are a "new customer", they have a deal where you get two 
standard receivers and a dish, and if you order the Football Pass, you pay 
only for that programming for the first 4 months--while getting their 
"everything" package.  After the 4 months, you just have to carry one of 
their packages for another 8 months.

Here's the FUN part--the difference in price between that promotion and 
adding the NBA League Pass, is slightly LESS than their normal monthly 
charge for the everything package.  So, instead of taking the financial 
break for four months, you order the NBA Pass AT THE SAME TIME.

You get the NBA pass, the Football Pass, the package and the 3 receivers 
for a ridiculously low amount of money--I paid $16 for the installation, 
and in my personal case, had to pay $50 up front due to my rotten 
credit.  (Hey, YOU try paying bills when you aren't able to work.)  That's 
STILL less than I was paying Cox Cable, in my case.  To boot, I have a 
local friend who actually liked football, so I expect to see a lot of him 
every Sunday this Fall.  :>))

Just to be clear--I don't get anything for mentioning this.  I found out 
about the deal and it's available to all.  But it's a cool way to get a 
bigger programming bang for having to do it Dave's way.

I'm still not thrilled that the League Pass is less and less valuable.  But 
at least this season, I'm paying less to get it.  We'll see what happens 
NEXT Summer.

But the upshot is, because we'll be paying less over a longer period of 
time, I'll be able to do game reviews on the CBW this season.

Couple of notes--they are pushing TiVo, but the boxes cost more (if I had 
the money, I'd have bought at least one, especially since unlike Cable, you 
can't program the VCR from the tv screen--but I didn't find that out until 
they were drilling holes in my wall).  I also asked if the NBA was going to 
run a similar promotion, and there are no plans for it at this point.

Snoopy the Celtics Beagle
Please visit the <http://www.celticsbeagle.net/>Celtics Beagle Website