Unless you are still using standard TV programming like you receive with the rabbit ear antennae on the TV or the roof of your home, then you are either using satellite or cable service for your TV programming. Not only are there vast technological differences between the two, there are also differences in the way that the two types of TV programming services have behaved in the communities that they do their business in.

When cable TV service first arrived on the scene a few decades ago the public was desperate for change in what they were receiving on their TV sets, so they were willing to look past the social character flaws that the new cable TV companies demonstrated. Cable TV service providers fought like crack dealers over the programming turf that was being divvied out and actually resorted to prostituting the democratic process in communities across the U.S. by bribing duly elected public officials to curry favor during this process.

The result was numerous scandals that appeared in the papers as their scurrilous deeds were exposed time and time again. Cable companies knew that they had the public by the gonads and they took full advantage of every opportunity to exploit this situation to their benefit. Since the very beginning cable companies forced their hapless customers to pay their inflated installation rates, even though they knew that they were going to be paying for their over priced service for decades to come and can you believe that some cable companies still do this.

What's even more unbelievable is that people actually pay them when DirecTV and Dish Network do free installation in up to four rooms in your home or business. DirecTV and Dish Network have not torn up one street or yard or installed one ugly green junction box in anyone's yard during the entire time that they have been serving the public and they never would behave that way.

Satellite TV programming service providers like DirecTV and Dish Network vowed from the very beginning to never involve themselves in the types of predatory business tactics that cable service providers have been using on the public and they have done quite well and that is something that cable service providers can learn from. Treating your community like family by offering them free satellite TV systems when they sign up, is just one of the many ways that DirecTV and Dish Network have proven time and again that nice guys don't always finish last.

Heck! DirecTV will even give you a free digital camera right now when you join their family of TV viewers. Satellite TV service is the most non obtrusive form of TV programming that is available and it is also the most environmentally friendly and businesses that care about the communities that they operate in should be encouraged and welcomed while those that have the track record that cable service provider have should be encouraged to pack up and leave.

When you make your decision on a TV programming service provider you also have the chance to make a decision that can have a positive or a negative impact on the community around you, so choose wisely the businesses that you support in your community.