While I have been a faithful customer for over 5 years, it has unfortunately not been by choice. The stranglehold you have on the City of Independence won’t allow me to go elsewhere. I’ve ignored the incessant promotional mailings from your dish competitors because I don’t need another contract or a temporary “promotional” rate. But in an ever evolving age where I can choose where, when and how I want to view media, I must ask…is this your best?

If I like to read I can buy a Kindle, if I like movies I can grab Netflix, if I miss a show I can watch HULU, if I want news I can pre-determine where I get my news and funnel it into one place, Google Reader.

And yet, when I look over your “Better TV” plans, all I find is a bunch of high-priced packages inflated with irrelevant channels I’d never watch. “Why aren’t you interested in upgrading?” you ask? Because cable television is one of the last media segments who have failed to adapt to the world around it.  Shift already happened. Good or bad, the individual consumer has the ability to customize how and what they want to consume.

So again I’ll ask, is this your best?

Someone among the conglomerate of cable providers who peddle the illusion of “choice” has to break away from the status quo and give the people what they want. Your audience is already taking measures into their own hands. Individualized, internet based content delivery is already here (i.e., HULU, Netflix, etc). You can try and come up with new ways to slice and dice your channel lineup, you can call it XFinity, or TheBestNewestMostAwesomeEnhancedTV, but in the end, it’s still cable TV…inflexible, irrelevant, impersonal and old.

Coming are the days where I can pay for only the programming that interests me and I gladly would. Just like the Kindle, the iPod, the apps and everything else, I’m concerned that someone is going to come along and replace you.

“Oh Danny, that will never happen, we’re the cable companies” says large cable company CEOs.

A brief trip through history reveals Betamax lost to VHS, Laserdisc (yes! video on discs the size of records) lost to the DVD, the DVD is slowly getting beat by BluRay and BluRay leapfrogged over the HD-DVD. Someone always loses.

So Comcast I ask that you consider being that pioneer, that agent of change and provide a way to allow everyone the freedom to truly choose what they watch, how they watch it, where they watch it and when.

Or you can keep holding out, keep renaming your services, toss up some new video content and still sell the same old thing.

I don’t know how much longer we have together.
I don’t know how much longer you have.

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