The cable providers and services.

Dealing with cable providers over any kind of service problem is not a 'quick and easy' or 'wham bam thank you mam' kind of exchange. It occurs over several months and involves a lot of account names, case numbers, and reiteration. The cable box is a fragile piece of equipment that breaks down consistently and requires a lot of rebooting in order for it to work properly. Cable boxes are meant to be swapped and traded in multiple times between the hours of 8-5. Services are expensive and only available in bulk because the chip in the cable box or satellite cannot segment the channels properly. It is impossible to offer fewer than 10000 channels unless you just want the basics. There isn't much documentation on these problems as it's all decided by how much money the cable provider makes and the snake can only eat itself so many times.

Firstly, a cable provider is a company and not a person so the human mind cannot actually comprehend what they are doing or why. The closest guess so far is money. This makes the job of the customer service representative extremely difficult often forcing them to resort to actual human interaction complete with apologies and agreed upon confusion to come to any kind of conclusion when dealing with customers. The cable provider doesn't like this because human interaction is apparently too expensive. The class difference between the corporate owners and the help is so large that any kind of honest communication is impossible. Formal communication is best left to memos written by assistants and mass emailed focus tested videos as those garner the most bland response. The working few chatting away on their keyboards are left to their own devices to solve the problems that occur for the common cable buying customer.

Secondly, having cable costs a lot more once you have cable. That wasn't very clear, I'll try again. Cable/satellite costs more once you have bought it and will consistently cost more until you stop having cable/satellite. Kind of like a joke. It is better to switch between cable companies because if you are a loyal customer among any cable provider you will be charged more money annually. It is financially stupid to stay with only one cable provider unless it is somehow compensated by your landlord or occupation. Switching cable in most situations requires switching internet as well unless you're some kind of cowboy.

Not everything about TV is bad. Companies like Time Warper, Com-case, Auntie Auntie, Dish Work, and Directorschair TV. You can get your combo super double packs and upgrade to HD. It's nice having a clock under the television. Websites have email integration. There are a lot of good shows available on Netflix and different networks. Hopefully one day communication will be possible between cable companies and their consumers. I know I'd love to stick with cable if they would keep their boxes working and reliable or even just work out a logical payment plan. Sadly, as I said before it is impossible for that to happen because there is just too much money to make from poorly designed products that have controlled the market for so many years. It doesn't make sense for them to change.

A cable provider is a rare beast. The last of their kind. If something changes around them than they will stay the same as they aren't effected by the ways of the world. This laziness is worked into the fiber of their business. One cannot count on the cable providers to pull their weight because that requires change on their part. Maybe they've fooled me all this time and there actually was some sort of plan to improve user experience among all demographics even the poor areas. Maybe Time Warper was lying when they said that their customer base didn't want Google Fiber internet, and they are actually thinking about staying with the times.

Even if some game console nails its integration of television in its system it doesn't change the fact that it's going through a cable box and that cable itself isn't changing. It is still going to be the same subpar service it is now. It's just sharing an input with a new box.