Superbowl Snafus

NBC regaled the nation with a few glitches in the broadcast of the Superbowl. After so many years of the roster, they were a little rusty putting on the show.

Comcast's dubious technical credentials were once again highlighted by 30 seconds of full frontal nudity it served its non-digital subscribers in parts of Arizona. This reminds me of two of my gripes with the cable giant:

1. Non-digital package subscribers are treated as second-class citizens.


2. There is no attention paid to customer service -- even the DMV beats them in this area.

My question to Comcast is, whatever happened to quality control? It is true that their digital service is slightly better than their analog feed, but not by much. I remember seeing snow in my HD feeds. Plus the hu m bars in their inDemand offerings render many of them unwatchable on a big screen.

Along the lines of Q.O.S. (Quality of Service), considering that most subscribers use the analog feed, some for their primary receivers and some for secondary units, wouldn't it make sense for Comcast to persuade them to upgrade through quality offerings.

This is a lesson satellite providers like DirectTV and Dish have learned. The reason their subscribers happily upgrade from a $29 basic package to an $80 enhanced lineup or even $400 sports pass, is that users are habituated to associated the service with high quality images and sound.

When dropped cable for DirectTV, my biggest surprise was how much more local television I was watching. The reason was that even local channels were more watchable. DirectTV manages to give me a better signal from my local stations than locally-based Comcast -- imagine that!

And Service, Comcasts continues to offer limited telephone support with some of the least cooperative operators. I hope this latest x-rated snafu causes more people to abandon their service and cause the company to shape up. My main complaint with Comcast is that, by being the largest cable operator, they give all cable providers a bad name. The truth is that there are some pretty good cable companies out there I've had positive experiences with the likes of Cox and Adelphia.
Although, I still have some bones to pick with industry effort known as CableLabs, I believe the problem with sub-par players like Comcast is their corporate culture and lack of commitment to service. Shame on you, Comcast!