Word: directv
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...answer depends mostly on the situation in your local TV market. Prices and channel packages vary wildly. Cable companies are in the midst of multibillion-dollar fiber-optic upgrades, which means that some places have better service than others. Meanwhile DISH and DirecTV say that unless they merge, they can't offer local channels - NBC, ABC, CBS, the WB and Fox affiliates, for example - to every American...
...mostly a negotiating ploy and not necessarily a reason for you to hold back on satellite. As long as you live in or near a city, it's more likely than not that you can already pick up local channels via satellite. DISH offers them to 60% of Americans; DirecTV does slightly better, at 67%. (As for your chances of picking up the satellite signal, that's more like 99%, unless you live in a canyon or in the shadows of skyscrapers...
...Every pixel that crosses your satellite dish starts and ends its life as a digital signal. A lot of cable channels are still transmitted in lower-quality analog; you usually have to pay extra for digital channels. As someone who has spent the past year hooked up to both DirecTV and AT&T cable, I can testify that shows on satellite are better-looking than the same broadcasts on cable, even on digital channels. (Then again, AT&T has yet to seed my block with fiber optics...
...industries are also at odds on the technology that drives TiVo and its imitators. These services allow you to record any show by name, zip through commercials and pause live TV. DISH and DirecTV have embraced the concept, but most cable companies prefer something similar called VOD (video on demand). Unfortunately, VOD is available in only a handful of markets right now and is mostly just for movies...
...Cable does have its advantages. If you're interested in high-speed Web surfing, cable modems are significantly cheaper than any satellite-based alternative. DirecTV offers a speedy two-way satellite Internet service called DirecWay, but it costs nearly $600 for installation, plus $60 a month for service. And when a technician visits, according to the J.D. Power study, cable customers are more likely to be pleased with the result. Last year the dish guys were ahead in customer satisfaction; they need to try harder...