ROKU, HBO GO

Yes, renting boxes costs money.  Why spend $120 a year to have a box when these services naturally should be made available via internet, e.g. Roku..  If I route HBO GO from a laptop, that is highly incovenient and requires a separate connection for speakers in addition to HDMI cable. 

Note, the inconvenience of routing from a laptop to TV is worth it when considering the cost of an additional box.  As a result, not enabling ROKU simply leaves is a bad feeling about the service provider.  I'm sure that a share of people who pay for boxes to avoid this inconvenience provides sizeable revenue to Comcast.  However, this reflects a lack of foresight as a full transition to internet is inevitable at this point and with the loss of "cable" Comcast will soon find customers leaving for other pure internet providers simply as a means to avoid this what feels like abuse from Comcast

The only reason that I can think of for Comcast unwillingness to contract with Roku, and along with their outrageous prices, is that they have to find a way to pay for buying GE's stake in NBC Universal. Wish that Time-Warner would be available in our market. What Comcast needs is some decent competition rather than hoarding the market.

What you forget is that all the cable companies have agreements NOT to compete geographicly with eachother. When have you ever seen a commercial for Cox or Time Warner in a Comcast area? Never..

Allthough I don't like to goto the government for ANYTHING. I wouldn't mind putting up a ballot innitiative LOCALLY for local residents to pay for an alternative service for internet. NOT WITH TAXES but monthly subs with service just as fast or faster bid out to the best provider. Then that provider would have to agree to no censorship on services. It would NOT be managed or serviced by the government. They would just provide access to poles or underground infrastructure.

What comcast is doing amounts to legalized censorship. It will be interesting to see what happens when the HBO contract ends and if HBO signs ANOTHER contract with comcast that allows Comcast to block HBO-GO at all. If they do then we can then blame HBO.

We won't devolve this into a political discussion, but suffice it to say (as someone who HAS written congress...) that it's now almost impossible to get much change.  Districts have been so gerrymandered purposely to prevent it.

Generally the only/best way to get change is through mass boycotts and public humiliation.  In Comcast's case, they have to see people moving to the competition.  And when people cancel, they need to be very specific why.

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wrote:

We won't devolve this into a political discussion, but suffice it to say (as someone who HAS written congress...) that it's now almost impossible to get much change.  Districts have been so gerrymandered purposely to prevent it.

 

Generally the only/best way to get change is through mass boycotts and public humiliation.  In Comcast's case, they have to see people moving to the competition.  And when people cancel, they need to be very specific why.

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A friend of mine at work has been with Comcast for well over 12 years, ever since his family moved into their current home. He said that until about a year and a half ago, they were reasonably satisfied with Comcast's service, but over the last year or so, service has steadily declined while prices have steadily risen. He is now dropping Comcast-they are going to Dish at a basic level (so he can have his sports) and Roku for everything else. He was in asking me about the Roku setups and how to get Hulu and Netflix streaming.

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@rwspears wrote:

What you forget is that all the cable companies have agreements NOT to compete geographicly with eachother. When have you ever seen a commercial for Cox or Time Warner in a Comcast area? Never..

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It's not the cable companies "in agreement."  Go check your county or city public records, it is your county and city commissioners that "grant" the companies exclusive license to operate in the city/county. Our county has a few years left on a 20 year deal with Comcast. . . and I will do everything in my power to make sure that does not get extended. There are areas where there is more than one cable company to choose from--and in those cities, the prices are quite a bit cheaper and the service somewhat better than those areas where there is no competition.

There you go...   even the Amazon river starts out as a million little streams. 

I have a contract for 1.5 more years, then I will look too...  In the meantime, I'll just be un-happy and vocal.  Maybe we can deter others from signing up...

It is a darn same that Comcast blocks viewing on the Roku , why do they care how we view the media, we are still paying for the their service.  

Can someone post an XFINITY response ( or link to one) to why I can't watch HBOGO on my ROKU even though I pay for cable, interent, and HBO through Comcast?

Well all of this censorship and the fact that HBO Go is blocked on Roku is consistent with why Comcast's brand scores so low in surveys, down at the bottom, around the major oil companies.  Not kidding...  That's why they introduced Xfinity as a new brand -- trying to shed the bad history of the Comcast name.  But the behavior here doesn't help with that much...

They need to open it up - absolutely NO reason not to other than pure greed and LACK of customer service focus.

Well it is CLEAR that COMCAST is READING these posts as they find one with an expletive (which theoretically speaking is only inferring succinctly instead of loquaciously how passionate this individual feels about the topic along with the other 1000+ individuals on the thread) and moved it to some other location and ironically STILL did not actually RESPOND to the comment. So like ATCDV stated they are simply IGNORING us. It is clear that Comcast feels that NO response is the best course of action for them

Is there a reason that Comcast blocks HBOgo on Roku?  It really doesn't make any sense because you are just blocking your customers from taking full advantage of what the channel offers.  I'm thinking I'll switch to Dish as they offer this and the Comcast onDemand menue is only about 20% of the full HBOGo content.  Please make this change soon.

The users need to be aware that "JAY" a moderator is regularly deleting, censoring posts, in this thread and the deleted posts are not using profanity nor derogatory words. The posts are informing you the comcast customer that some of us, soon to be former long time customers ( I have been with Comcast since their inception) are leaving comcast for other options. LIKE UVERSE and DISH, Comcast does not care about anyones complaints not problems. IF you read this remember it because it will soon be deleted by the censors. Comcast is dead to me. They are not consumer friendly, the over zealous moderators need to wake up. IF we all leave they have no job. Do yourselves a favor and investigate your options for improved service. Please check out other TV and internet vendors. Send Comcast a clear message, we will not tolerate their anti customer policies

eveidently they deleted mu post again "wihout me using 1 single profane word". I am calling comcast today to report him for "abuse of power".