Cellphones and Cable -- Part II

Eastern Iowan's and readers of my blog may remember the winter-months tussle between Sinclair Communications (owners of local station KGAN) and Mediacom (the only cable provider available in many areas of Cedar Rapids). As near as I understood, Sinclair wanted to charge Mediacom for use of its transmission, while Mediacom wasn't particularly interested in paying for something that broadcast television provides consumers for free. After months of he said/she said name-calling, the boxers reached some sort of compromise a couple of days prior to the Super Bowl.

It's hard to know which entity took the bigger public relations hit -- the monopolistic cable company that resorted to handing out free antennas and frozen pizzas to its customers, or hard-nosed Sinclair, whose executives were on record as saying that they could shut down the Cedar Rapids station and it wouldn't hurt their bottom line one bit. At the very least, you might assume that both Mediacom and Sinclair would now be interested in regaining the good graces of their customers. Well, you've heard that ol' saying about what happens when you assume ...

Instead, Mediacom decided that this was an ideal time to raise its rates on basic cable customers like myself.

Now, what do you suppose I might consider a "fair" rate raise -- 5-10 percent? Yep, that sounds fair to me.

How about 56 percent? Fifty six percent is, in fact, the increase I noted on my May bill.

Let's break that down just a bit. The actual cost of the package is $20 (then Mediacom and the government add a slough of taxes and fees that no one understands). Here's what I get for my $20, plus tax and "tip":

• The CBS, ABC, NBC, Fox, Ion, WB, and Iowa Public Television affiliates that I'm supposed to receive without the benefit of cable.
• WGN and TBS, the superstations that have been part of basic cable since cable was, uhhh, basic.
• Three or four shopping channels that I only peruse when there is a commercial break in my preferred programming.
• A local access feed from Kirkwood Community College, and a local feed from the University of Iowa.
• A local Mediacom channel that often shows replays of University of Iowa sports, local high school activities, and locally-produced sports talk shows.
• What else ... CNBC? Not sure if that's it or not. No, I'll bet its CNN ... or C-SPAN. Well, it's one of those. These days, its wall-to-wall programming of the "Road to the White House." It's not necessarily the 2008 road to the White House though -- I think I've recently seen replays of Howard Dean and John Kerrey campaign speeches from '04.

That's it. In all, I pay about $1 per channel. Of those channels I might ever really watch, I pay two bucks. But of those channels that I might watch, AND come exclusively to me through cable programming, my per station cost jumps to nearly $7. Ouch, ouch, ouch, ouch, ouch, ouch, ouch (one stab in the back for each dinero).

I would like SOOOOO much to become a FORMER Mediacom customer. But since EVERYONE now subscribes to cable or satellite television, TV manufacturers only include the weeniest of antennas with their sets. And, if I go to Radio Shack and buy an antennae, where am I going to put it? It doesn't fit very neatly inside my entertainment center, nor does it look particularly attractive sitting on top of the it.

So, thanks Mediacom. You've got me right where you want me -- dependent on your service, yet hating my dependency.