🚀 go-pugleaf

I have several complaints and suggestions about the quality and
content of programming offered by your service.  I hope that my
suggestions will help your cable company gauge the needs of its
customers better.

1.  Program content on most channels caters to teenagers and ignores
its older viewers.  I know of few teenagers who pay the cable bill.  I
know that the teen demographic is important to marketing interests,
but the exclusive focus on them results in a diluted product for the
rest of us.


2.  Programming has become stale and dumbed-down.  How long are the
cable channels going to bore us with psychics, tornadoes, shark
attacks, WWII, and forensic crime shows?   Programming is limited to a
very narrow range of topics.  Content is always at the basic, Sesame
Street level.  Even if the topic is interesting, the same basic
material is repeated--like those dull National Geographic specials--it
is like never getting past the first three pages of a book.

3.  Reruns of reruns of reruns.  The cable channels need new movies
and programs desperately.

4.  Cable channels show programs that have nothing to do with their
stated specialty.  The Discovery Channel is obsessed with forensic
crime shows; that channel is supposed to be a science channel.  The
Bravo channel now is adding gay programming having nothing to do with
its stated cultural programming label.  The History channel slips
stealth porn shows (just look into the schedule) into its lineup in a
desperate, cynical effort to attract viewers.  I do not object to that
type of programming for those attracted to that material, but that
stuff should be on other appropriately-labeled channels.


5.  Cable channels show inappropriate, offensive and obscene
commercials and promos during children's and family programming.  I
saw a 'Silence of the Lambs' promo during a Star Trek TNG show that is
viewed by young people (the promo is about a cannibalistic serial
killer).  On the same cable channel, I saw 'Spike' channel stealth
porn promos (stealth porn is disguised as legitimate programming, but
is a cheap attempt to grab male viewers) during the same Star Trek
program.  Is there no one minding the store at the FCC or the cable
programming operations?


6.  Endless infomercial scams.  Don't be a vehicle for these consumer
scam operations.  It makes the business world look bad and it makes
your cable company look bad.  I respect the rights of legitimate
businesses to advertise but as the one that pays the cable bill in
this house, I don't want to pay for a blizzard of infomercial
rip-offs.

7.  Lack of academic level content on your system.  How about
university lectures on mathematics and physics?  How about a course on
English literature?  You have depravity (Howard Stern) on the
Entertainment channel; but differential equations and Melville are
banned in a de-facto sense.  C-Span channels address this issue
somewhat, but those channels have a very narrow focus (current events,
US History).


I buy your cable service for internet access and for a disabled member
of the household.  I would not purchase the service for the cable
channels; the programming is stale, boring, and in some cases, weird. 
I do find that there are some very good programs and movies on your
service, but these are mostly reruns as mentioned above.  I am sure
that fresh, quality programming exists out there; try the Mechanical
Universe and the follow-up, the Mechanical Universe and Beyond, the
BBC series, I Claudius and House of Cards, to see what I mean by
quality programming.  Lastly, remember that, as the saying goes, the
customer who complains is my friend.


NetVoice2003