If I’m paying for cable TV and I have paid for the DVR, which I now own much like a VCR, why on earth would I pay a monthly service fee to record “my” cable television, which I’m paying for? It’s bad enough that we must pay to watch television where this all originated on the premise that advertisers pay for television and in turn they get to advertise to millions of viewers. The alure of cable was the promise of “no commercials” except those which promoted the cable station itself, which was fair but now cable stations are not only charging the murchants to advertise but they are also charging viewers to be advertised to as many cable stations run ads just like free TV, which in and of itself can and should be construed as consumer fraud.

The idea of “offering” a service to enhance one’s ability to record TV is one thing but to “trick” or “force” the consumer to use a service that is neither necessary or essential, especially given that the equipment used to record the program is purchased and owned as opposed to being rented is simply unacceptable. When one purchases a VCR there is no “service fee” associated so why should that change because the signal is “digital” as opposed to “analog”?

Consumers are not sheep to be led to slaughter and given that consumers are counting every penny during these difficult times, its just a matter of time before Tivo and any other “fee” related to the act of recording television will be eliminated completely.

The Advocate