So it may seem that the cable and satellite TV industry is in deep trouble. People are getting more and more disgusted with paying up to $150 or more each month for a bucket of channels, many of which they don’t even watch. Even when you want to get a cheaper deal, in order to get a good cross-section of the content you want, you may have to buy several tiers — or higher tiers — of service. You cannot choose from Column A and Column B. So you’re stuck!
To some degree, you may blame the entertainment companies who bundle channels and provide them to the cable/satellite industry as packages. You may be surprised to know that NBCUniversal’s cable networks include not just Syfy and USA Network. They also include such channels — some of which may be unknown to many of you — as Chiller, Cloo, Sprout, Universal HD, and several more.
Now not all of these channels may be available from your cable company. Cloo, for example, which offers mostly crime procedurals, such as Law & Order and NCIS. It’s not even available in HD, and many of the content carriers, such as Dish Network and Cox, don’t include it on their schedule.