Today, television is all about choices. There are hundreds of channels from which a person can choose, many of them geared toward specific interests such as history, sports, news, golf, cooking, and the list goes on. In the infancy of TV, this was certainly not the case, where there was one, maybe two channels to watch. But now, with the cable TV and satellite provider vying for customers, the options are vast.



Satellite TV comes into your home via communications satellites up in the atmosphere. You are required to have your own smaller satellite dish, aimed at the southern sky, and a receiver box (much like a cable box) connected to your TV. Satellite TV service first began in the early 1980's. These early systems were expensive, and required a rather large satellite dish. It wasn't until the 1990's when the systems became more manageable and affordable, and a popular option to cable TV, which had its own little monopoly going at the time. But that quickly began to change.

For a moment, it looked like satellite TV had an edge over cable TV. But, with the onslaught of digital cable, companies are neck and neck, and provide very equivalent services. The type of service you want is up to you. If you decide to go with a satellite TV provider, you will have the option of going with either the DISH Network, or DirecTV. Both offer a variety of packages and options (or programming tiers) that you can use to cater to your television viewing level and lifestyle.

When choosing a satellite TV provider, you will want to look at the channels they each offer, the prices for the different levels of programming, the equipment costs, and the contract specifics. More than likely, there will be little discrepancy in the channels offered by either provider. They both offer all of the basic channels, in addition to a large amount of movie, sports, and music channels. The prices for the programming packages will likely be equivalent as well. This is for your benefit in that the competition will help keep costs relatively reasonable for the customer.

With satellite TV, you will have to buy equipment. This includes a satellite dish, and one or more receivers, depending on how many rooms you want to be able to view the satellite channels in. Often, a satellite TV provider will offer freebies, such as a free dish or free two-room receiver for signing up, or even free channels for a limited time. Before you make a choice, look for sales and offers just like those. And now, satellite TV providers might even offer HDTV receivers at no cost as well. The incentives can be quite attractive.

You should be aware that there are certain drawbacks to satellite TV. Although you will find that your TV picture is often much clearer than with regular cable TV, a satellite TV signal is subject to interference in the atmosphere that can cause an outage of service temporarily. Such things as bad weather and sunspots will give you nothing but a blank screen. This is not something that can be fixed by a satellite TV provider, unfortunately. Another drawback is that you might not have access to your local stations, especially if you live in a smaller town or a remote area. In order to get those, you will then either have to subscribe to basic cable, or try to get an antenna to pick up local TV channels.

Yet another downside to satellite TV is that a provider will require you to sign a lengthy agreement, sometimes as much as two years, especially if you want to take advantage of the incentives they offer. You can get out of it, but for a very hefty fee. This differs from cable in that you can cancel your cable TV service at any time with no extra penalties.

If you want to use satellite TV, or you have to due to living in a remote area without access to cable TV, you will want to make sure you choose the right satellite TV provider for you. The best way to do that is by visiting their websites, and by asking people that you know who use satellite TV. Satellite TV is still an affordable option, with many choices available to the customer. And a satellite TV provider will likely offer many incentives to get you to sign on the dotted line.