JANUARY 7, 2009

The Curious Case Of FiOS TV

Do you know what’s going to be the demise of my New Year’s resolutions?

It’s not Madden 09, YouTube, or Facebook .

The answer is FiOS TV.

This past Sunday I had great ambitions of catching up on some blogging, paying some bills, and maybe even taking over the world; however, none of it got done.

Instead I sat and watched D3: The Mighty Ducks- and loved every minute of it. The trilogy about those lovable, misfit hockey players is my all-time favorite movie franchise.

When I moved into my new place, I decided to try Verizon FiOS for TV and Internet rather than Comcast Cable, which I was using at my old place. While I was impressed with the speed of my internet, I was floored by the TV channels.

With cable I only had 75 or so channels and now there are 10 times that amount. I now have so many TV channels I don’t know what to do with them.

Need to know the weather? I have 5 channels for that. Have the urge to shop? I have QVC and three other channels to watch. I have 5 channels of ESPN, 5 of MTV, and 13 of local programming… from two counties.

I sat down that Sunday just to briefly check out some news, but I soon got lost in the channels, wondering who watches the CHILLER network or WealthTV (my best guess: people who can afford all the premium channels I haven’t even talked about, like 14 channels of HBO in HD).

Back in 2007, Josie looked at the average number of TV channels available to the average home and the number that are actually watched. It makes sense that with so many channels now available, many of them specialized, niche networks, a consumer can feel overwhelmed with the saturation of media. I know that’s how I felt that night.

So with 700 channels what did I ultimately choose? While I had my pick of quality programming such as Parental Control or How to Look Good Naked, I ultimately settled on something familiar. With so many new choices I couldn’t make a quick decision and just stopped at the first familiar face I saw- that of the lovable Emilio Estevez. I wonder if that’s the thought process many others go through when trying to cope with all those channels.

I’ve had FiOS since November but I only really watch ESPN, CNN, MSNBC, and the broadcast networks. The only new channel I now watch from the deluge of new TV is the NFL Network.

Have you also narrowed down your viewing habits to a select few?