Hi, kids. Due to the fact that I haven't really been pissed off at anything lately, the rant page has been forgotten. But now the bitterness is back, and so is the Gripe O' The Week!™ This week I will be talking about the absurdness of satellite TV. As those of you who know me are aware, I get my TV programming from the #1 satellite service in the nation, the Dish Network (or EchoStar or E* to you dish-heads). Anyhoo, in April Dish announced the launching of the largest basic package in cable or mini-dish history: the Dish500 America's Top 150 package. Now, instead of the wimpy 95 channel pack i had before, I have a 160 channel monster that include over 50 audio-only feeds. On top of those channels, I also get HBO The Works (7 channels), MultiMax (3 channels), the Showtime Unlimited (10 friggin' channels) plus 7 public interest channels, my network locals, 30 pay per view choices, 30 channels of family-themed and religious programming and the 21 out of market sports networks. All in all this is almost 270 different channels I can choose from. Why is it, then, that when I get home from work there is never anything decent on? Oh sure, there's the late night tittie movies on Cinemax and I like watching SportsCenter a lot, but most of the shows I watch come to my house off the air and free of charge anyway! I have thought about this, and my conclusion is that the only reason I have the Dish500 on my roof is because it's a status symbol, proof of my assumed elitism. Oh well. That works for me. I wonder what's on TNT tonight....

Labels: GOTW