The number of ways people can receive TV and online content has never been greater, while overall access has never been more challenging. Reporting on the “digital divide,” Brain Lowry picks the brain of Richard Schneider and his insight into cable’s failings.
Lowry, who cites a growing divide in access because of unemployment and cable’s rising costs, while those who can afford it buy technologies like tablet computers. This divide and other “media evolutions” are leaving some judging between their needs and wants, with cable on the losing end. One such evolution is the Comcast/NBC merger, which Lowry writes:
In terms of what can genuinely be achieved — or at least ought to be — here’s your answer: providing minimal safeguards to ensure the economically disadvantaged, especially children, aren’t completely left behind by the current media evolution.
At Antennas Direct we have always championed free access to over-the-air TV. We know that people are looking for TV access because of financial reasons or simply to fill the lost content they cannot get from the Internet. In their frustrations with the cable company, Richard Schneider says:
Richard Schneider — president of St. Louis-based Antennas Direct, which sells antennas to receive free broadcast signals — says consumer antipathy toward cable, coupled with the availability of broadband, is leading people to explore less-expensive delivery systems.
“Every time there’s a cable price increase, our phones ring off the hook,” Schneider says. “People are crying ‘uncle.’?”
Read the full article in Variety magazine.