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Oh what a Body Slam, and another vicious clothesline. If you
have never heard these terms before, they are used in wrestling,
the greatest form of entertainment today (in my humble opinion).
Pro-Wrestling has become one of the biggest moneymakers in
North America and the cable company is in on the deal. These
cable companies have made millions of dollars off loyal wrestling
fans (like myself) through pay-per-view broadcasts. Don't get
me wrong -- they are giving me a service and I'm giving them
money for that. The problem I had was when I got cut off.
Let me start at the beginning. Late last year, my local cable
company decided that they would no longer carry any pay-per-views,
which meant that they would no longer have wrestling. I couldn't
believe it. They have made millions off of pay-per-view. Oh yeah,
what is pay-per-view? Well, it means that you give the cable
company money and they will give you the event you pay for. Not
a bad deal but back to the point.
My local cable company buys a package of pay-per-view events
from a larger company in Southern Ontario. This company buys
the rights to the events and sells them back to the small cable
companies as a package. My local company did not pick up the
package. Why, oh why, did they cut us off?
Well, the answer that I got was that they were not making
enough money. So the price that it cost them to buy the package
and then sell it back to their customers was not making them
enough money. This is a load of, well you know. They sell these
events for 30 dollars each, plus you have to rent their equipment,
and that costs a dollar a day. It could cost you 37 dollars (plus
tax) to get this a week in advance. As well, to avoid not getting
a box, sometimes you may have to rent them up to three weeks
early, which could cost you more than 50 dollars.
Basically, the truth is that there was a battle going on with
a thief and the cable company. This was one that my local cable
company was losing. You see that there is a device out there
known as a "black box". This device was sold in stores
over 15 years ago but now became illegal. This "black box"
works under the same system as the equipment that the cable company
has. The main difference is that this will steal pay per-view-channels
at zero cost. The cable company had no way to stop this act so
they cut everyone off.
Let me sum it up for you: my cable company couldn't come up
with a way to stop this massive theft so they punish everyone.
Don't get me wrong -- I don't condone theft but I don't condone
punishing the innocent either.
So who wins in this situation? The bars do. All the local
bars have satellites so they now all have pay-per-views twice
a month and make five dollars a head plus whatever . As well,
satellite companies are the only people that can give an "at
home" service. So now they have the market cornered and
will make a fortune. Well who loses? Under-19 wrestling fans
do. I'm among those who don't have a satellite and can't get
into the bars. So for now, there will be no pay-per-views for
me.
In the end, the cable company has alienated many of their
loyal customers. They have taken away wrestling from many hard
core fans (like myself). When will it come back? When they can
stop the "black boxes". However, this is impossible.
Since I'm going to be 19 in about a year, for me the frustration
ends in 365 days. For everyone else, you have my pity. I can
only hope that by some miracle, the wrestling corporations or
someone else with empathy for this situation and do something
about it. In the mean time, wrestling fans will have to watch
the shows on regular TV and wait to watch pay-per-views on video
(three or four months late).
Finally if a wrestling fan reads this and feels my pain: write
a letter, let your voice be heard, and make a difference. With
enough of us, change can happen. You just have to believe. |
