Cable vs. Satellite vs. FiOS

Choosing the right television service can be daunting. From picture quality to price, content to connectivity, we line 'em up and give you pros and cons to each.

Choosing a home’s television service provider gets a little more difficult each year. Emerging technologies, changing rates and packages, and access limitations all factor into this battle royal between old – and new - enemies. There are some basics you can expect from everyone, like DVRs, HD channels, and bundled internet service. But take a closer look and you’ll see some differences that may push one of them over the top and into your home.

Cable
That the word “cable” is often used to refer to any television service – digital, analog, HD, you name it – is suggestive of the dominance over the television industry of those companies providing service over coaxial lines. What we can now call “traditional cable” service is associated with heavy-hitters like Time Warner Cable, Comcast, and the like. These companies provide digital cable content, including HD service, largely via underground cable lines.

Although the cable industry is taking heat on many fronts (regulatory issues, inflated bills, etc.), the bigger companies have been at the table for a long time, and that experience can be seen in the way these providers shape their content. “Our on-demand service just passed six billion views since 2003,” says Derek Harrar, Senior Vice President and General Manager of Video Service for Comcast. He broke their numbers down farther, adding: “We’re seeing 250 million views a month, or 100 views a second.” Research into the habits of Comcast’s 14 million subscribers indicates that on-demand usage is on the rise, and the company has responded by expanding their on-demand offerings to include much more than just current-release movies. Customers can find television episodes, music, and educational content. “We even have guitar lessons available,” says Harrar.

Detractors of cable cite the industry’s aging infrastructure as a reason to switch to the competition. Some think that the increasing bandwidth demands of high-definition content will prove to be too much for the existing network; others say that the need to compress content – particularly high definition – leads to less-than-expected picture and audio quality on the receiving end. Comcast recently countered these claims with a blind, third-party picture quality test, pitting Comcast’s Hi-Def picture against one of the leading satellite’s. “Two to one the satellite customers chose the Comcast picture,” states Harrar. So much for the detractors…

Cable companies like Comcast are also able to offer bundled services. Their Triple-Play package includes cable, internet, and digital voice (VoIP) services that use the same network. Bundled services are payable on one bill, and usually incur a lesser cost than the sum of the individual services.

Satellite
Satellite television – also called Direct Broadcast Satellite or DBS – must be thanked for bringing digital television to those rural-dwelling masses and others who otherwise might suffer a channel-less fate. Satellite’s claim to fame is its accessibility. As long as you can mount the dish facing south, it’s a pretty safe bet that you can receive satellite television.

Satellite service is still plagued by weather-related interruptions. Ever been watching a game via satellite during a thunderstorm? It can be frustrating. Other than Mother Nature, however, there is little that can come between you and a positive satellite-sent viewing experience. “I’d rather have my service go out for a few seconds than a whole afternoon,” says Parker McConnachie, spokesperson for Dish Network, referring to occasions when construction accidents result in severed cable lines.

DirecTV, one of the better-known satellite television providers, has been receiving praise for having the digital television industry’s biggest selection of HD offerings – they are currently at 85 channels. The only issue is you have to upgrade to a new satellite dish in order to receive these services. The same goes for internet access. Dish Network offers high-speed internet services (powered by WildBlue), but it too requires an additional southern-facing dish to be installed. DirecTV circumvents this hardware issue by partnering with ISP’s to create packages. For example, DirecTV works with Verizon DSL to bundle Verizon’s internet service with DirecTV’s satellite television. Not quite the same, but still an added measure of convenience.

If HD is your thing, Dish Network not only has a large choice in HD programming, they also have one of the industry’s best DVR’s, capable of storing 55 hours of HD or 350 hours of standard def content. “Customers can also add an external hardrive to the receiver and add another 750 GB of storage,” adds McConnachie. This almost makes up for the fact that satellite - since it is not a two-way system - does not have “true” on-demand capability. Dish Network is overcoming that disadvantage by adding a USB port for internet-connectivity to their receivers. Users with an internet connection can access Dish’s IPTV services, including pay-per-view and on-demand features.

Satellite television providers tend to attract those customers with an inherent interest in what’s happening abroad and being broadcast from abroad. Both DirecTV and Dish Network offer international channel line-ups, and make it pretty easy to tailor one’s service package to meet one’s needs.

Fiber Optic Service
Fiber optic service (FiOS) is the relatively new kid on the block, but already it has gained significant momentum. Verizon’s FiOS TV is perhaps the best-known deliverer of TV over fiber. Launched in 2005, 13 states currently have Verizon’s FiOS TV service, thanks to Verizon’s “Fiber to the premises” initiative, which laid miles upon miles of fiber optic lines. Rather than simply bring the fiber to a neighborhood node (as was the case with much of the cable infrastructure), Verizon is making sure that the fiber lines go right to a home’s curbside, which greatly enhances service quality and speed. “We believe that FiOS is the network of the future,” says Sharon Cohen-Hagar, spokesperson for Verizon FiOS TV. “It has the capacity and the bandwidth to carry services that haven’t even been dreamed of.” That capacity and bandwidth provides frighteningly fast download/upload speeds for internet subscribers, un-compressed HD content, and voice-over internet phone service.

FiOS isn’t for everyone, however, and not because you wouldn’t want it. It’s just not available to everyone. The task of brining fiber to a home, neighborhood, or city, requires time and money, which is why Verizon is limited to 13 states, and only portions of those. AT&T’s “U-verse TV” is another digital-television-over-fiber option, but it currently services a mere 120,000 customers, compared to the 27.6 million digital cable subscribers country-wide.

The HD service – good as it may be in quality – isn’t at quite the capacity of FiOS’s cable and satellite competitors. Verizon FiOS TV offers a scant 30 HD channels (give or take depending on location), though the company plans to increase that to around 150 by the end of 2008. The installation process might scare off potential customers, too. In addition to dropping lines from the curb to the home, installers will need to set up a box (usually external to the home), connect the fiber lines and the home’s coaxial lines, and potential test and replace portions of a home’s existing coaxial network to make sure that the quality service promised can be delivered. In all, installation can take anywhere from 3-6 hours.