With the current spread of the COVID-19 virus, and the global pandemic proclaimed by the World’s Health Organization, a lot of people are advised to stay at home in quarantine, so most of us are spending our time watching TV.
Ever since we got introduced to the television services we instantly fell in love with them, and the reason for that is quite obvious. There isn’t really a better way to spend your free time or relax after work than by tuning in to your favorite channel and enjoying some entertaining content.
However, things sometimes tend to get pretty “techy” when it comes to the entire television thing, and this is exactly what we are here to talk about today.
As we all know already, there are cable and satellite TV’s, but the “regular person” doesn’t know the difference between them, so how should they decide which one to pick in order to get the most bang for their buck?
Welcome to the Cable vs Satellite TV 2024 Comparison guide, and we hope that by the end of it you’ll know a lot more than what you did before tuning in. Without any further ado, let’s take a look.
The basic functioning
Let’s take a look at some of the most basic functions of both options, so you can have a clearer picture about how these two work, and then we’ll move to the other important factors that should decide which one you should go for.
The cable option means exactly what the name suggests, getting all of the information transferred from the central to your home through a cable, either a coaxial one or fiber-optics. It’s not the most advanced type of technology that you can have, but it sure gets the job done and a lot of people across the world find it very useful.
The satellite option means that you are getting all of the content through a satellite, pretty simple. You’ll need to install an outdoor antenna, and usually this gets placed at the top of your home, or the roof to be more specific. You can either do this by yourself if you are skilled enough, or hire a professional to do it for you. Usually, most companies will cover this procedure when you sign a contract with them.
If you decide that this is the better option for you, and you’re looking for a company in Glasgow that can install an aerial on top of your home professionally, feel free to visit mikeharrisaerialsandsatellite.co.uk
The differences – Comparison
As we all know, there are some differences between both the satellite and cable solutions, so let’s take a look at them and do some comparison.
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Equipment
You cannot have both methods installed with the same type of equipment. As we already mentioned above, for the satellite one you’ll need to get a dish installed at the top of your house, and for the cable variant you’ll need something called “the junction box”. They are both easy to install, so you shouldn’t worry about it from that aspect, but they are different so you can’t have both with the same equipment.
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Locations and availability
If you want satellite TV, you can have it everywhere you want. As we already said, the signals are being transmitted from satellites that can cover a huge range, so no matter where you are in the United States for example, you’ll be able to receive the signals.
With the cable solution, that’s not really possible. You have to be situated in an area that’s close to a company, or a network provider, which is not the case in some rural areas and places with low population. This is where the satellite TV has a slight advantage.
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Contracts and economy aspect
Money is something that interests every person alive on this planet, and it’s just because we live in a world where almost everything costs, including TV access in your home. When it comes to the economy aspect, contracts for cable are usually month to month, meaning that you can cancel at the end of the month if you find the service unsatisfying for your needs.
However, for satellite, it usually goes from year to year, so be careful before you sign. Make sure that you read enough about the company and how they operate so that you don’t end up wasting your money.
As for the costs, they tend to be pretty much the same, simply because the competition is way too high in this area, so if one provider lowers the price, the others will have to do the same. This means that you should expect the prices of these two different methods to remain the same almost always. In the United States for example, usually the price for cable is about seventy dollars, with all HD channels included, and for satellite it’s forty to fifty without HD, and seventy for the “all included” option.
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What you get for the money
Now you are probably wondering what you end up getting for the money, and the truth is, you’re getting very similar things for both solutions. The required equipment to receive the channel broadcast is always included in the contract, but it will mostly depend on the company and their policy. Then, you get a special remote controller for your TV, and a few other assets once again depending on what the company has to offer.
So, which one is better?
This is probably the question that you all want to hear the answer to, but the truth is, it always depends on your needs. We cannot really say which method is better, simply because the experience is very similar, with some minor differences that are not enough to be a deciding factor.
As we already mention, if you want to live in an RV and somewhere in nature, but you still want to have TV access, satellite is probably better for you. If you live in a crowded city, close to a service provider company, then we don’t see a reason why you shouldn’t go for cable. Both are equally easy to install, and as we already mentioned, the cost almost the same, so we’ll leave it up to you to decide which one you’ll choose.
