Direct TV vs Comcast

Comcast is the largest cable television company in the United States. Direct TV is the biggest satellite company. So if you live in an area served by Comcast, you probably have wondered how the two pay television providers stack up against each other:

Direct TV vs Comcast.

Comcast has over 25 million subscribers, and is based out of Philadelphia, PA. The current CEO is Brian Roberts, who is the son of Ralph J. Roberts who was one of the co-founders of Comcast.

Comcast has a huge presence of course in cable TV, and in recent years has taken that advantage and extended it out to the high speed internet field. Estimates place the Comcast high speed internet penetration at about 50% of their subscriber base, meaning they probably have 12 million plus cable modem connections. Combine that with phone service and Comcast is a formidable competitor to Direct TV with their triple play packages of voice, video and internet.

While many certainly look for a package deal when moving into a new house or apartment, is Comcast your best choice when hooking up telephone, cable TV, and internet service? They may be, but customers should certainly have their eyes open to what the real cost of Comcast service is when compared to Direct TV. Often you can get a good deal on the Comcast triple play bundle for the first three or six months. Sometimes Comcast extends that and you can get a good deal for the first year of service. Often these offers include all three services for $99 dollars a month.

While getting all three services from one company may seem like a good thing, some Comcast customers have experienced poor service. Often when a company is trying to specialize in several different services, th quality of service can suffer as they are trying to be all things to all people. Direct TV has an advantage in that they have received higher customer satisfaction ratings, and they concentrate on delivering one service, satellite television.

What about price? That is often the main consideration when shoppers compare Direct TV to Comcast. Cable TV prices can vary based on the area you live in, as Comcast sets different prices for each franchise. For example, the prices pulled off of the Comcast website for the Denver, Colorado area are listed here. This should give you a general idea of what “normal” Comcast pricing will look like.

Starter Cable is priced at $53.39 per month and of course includes a wide variety of well known cable networks with sports, music, news, and kids’ programming. Local channels are included as is digital converter box, remote control, On-screen guide, and Digital Music channels. The following Comcast packages include everything in the Starter Cable package, of course adding more channels for the prices you see.

Digital Preferred with ON DEMAND is the next package priced from $68.34.

Preferred Plus with ON DEMAND is $100.99

Digital Premier with ON DEMAND Includes 5 premium movie networks and is $119.99. This it the all inclusive package, comparable with the Direct TV Premier Package.

Now if you have cable, internet packages can be added, here are the prices for these services with Comcast.

High speed internet is $54.95 for Internet only or $52.95 for Voice Customers and $42.95 for Cable TV customers. As you can see, normal pricing with Comcast TV and internet service easily exceeds $100 per month. This is why many have gone with Direct TV for their video service, then added phone and internet service through the local telephone company, like Verizon or Qwest.

Direct TV pricing starts at $29.99 for the Family package, which is a very basic cable setup. A better comparison to the Comcast Starter cable would be the Direct TV Choice package. That package includes over 150 video and audio channels and is $34.99 for the first year of service.

Beyond that Direct TV packages such as the Choice Xtra and the Premier packages compare favorably to the Digital Preferred and Digital Premier packages price-wise. Normal pricing, looking beyond the promotional periods have Comcast charging about $20 more per month.

Be sure when getting a price quote from Comcast or Direct TV to let them know exactly how many TV’s you are connecting, and whether DVR service is something you need. Both companies charge fees for extra DVR’s and receivers for the other television sets in your home.

Now another area where Comcast and Direct TV are battling it out is in HD, or high definition programming. Over the last year or two, Comcast HD vs Direct TV HD has been a very public and somewhat messy battle. Charges, claims, accusations, and even a court case have resulted from Comcast and Direct TV each claiming they have the most HD.

Why so many frayed nerves between Comcast and Direct TV? Well everybody is of course upgrading their home entertainment system, and HDTV’s are what people are buying. Whether flat-screen plasma or LCD TV’s, they want HD content on that new TV, and they are willing to switch from Comcast to Direct TV or vice versa if they think the other has the most HD content. Other television providers like DISH Network, Verizon FiOS, and AT&T U-verse are just as adamant that they have the “most” HD.

So where does that leave the consumer? It can be difficult to find the truth when companies are spending millions of dollars claiming they are the best when it comes to HD. For example, earlier this year, Comcast announced a new HD initiative called Project Infinity. The network enhancement announced that Comcast customers would eventually have “1000 HD Choices.” So what exactly is an HD choice, and how does it differentiate from an HD channel.

According to Comcast, if a customer uses the on-demand service provided, they have hundreds of shows they can watch at any given time. Many of those choices are HD shows available from the different cable TV networks. Comcast recently said they had reached the “500 Choices” plateau. So if there are 450 shows available via on-demand, and there are 50 live HD channels available to a subscriber, that totals “500 HD choices.” Math like this allows Comcast to claim they have the most HD, and air commercials saying that they are. The problem with this is that many of those on-demand choices may be duplicates of the same show. For example, there may be 10 different episodes of Mythbusters available through the on demand platform, but that doesn’t do much for the subscriber who is looking for variety in the HD provided by Comcast.

Now that is not to say Direct TV runs a completely honest campaign in the HD numbers they claim. Direct TV now offers 130+ HD channels, bumping that number up from around 100 a few months ago. So to most customers that sounds great, 130 high definition channels. Many of those channels though are very rarely used by the customer. Direct TV counts 20+ of their pay-per-view channels as HD, even though most customers may order one or two PPV movies in a months time. There are also dozens of regional sports networks now broadcast in HD, but those are only available to customers who have the Sports Pack or the DirecTV Premier package.

Another consideration when comparing Comcast HD and Direct TV HD is where you live. Now no matter where you live in the United States, you will have access to all of the HD channels offered by Direct TV. That is because when they introduce national HD channels, they are rolled out to all of their subscribers at once. With Comcast it is much different. Comcast has to have the network bandwidth available in order to deliver the HD channels to each home they serve. That means highly populated areas usually get a lot more HD than areas that have fewer subscribers. Unfortunately every area is different, so in order to find out how many HD channels you can get through Comcast, you have to call them directly and have them look up your particular area. Make sure you ask how many channels, not choices they offer through Project Infinity.

Finally, because of the above referenced bandwidth problem, some Comcast customers have experienced poor HD signal quality. Why? In order to keep pace in the HD channel battle, Comcast has compressed some channels in some areas. By doing this, Comcast can deliver more HD channels through the same delivery mechanism. Unfortunately for subscribers, this often results in a “crunched” or “squashed” picture coming through that new HDTV you just bought. Not Good.

The only way to see if this is being done where you live is to check with a friend who already has Comcast HD, or sign up and see for yourself.

Bottom line comparing the HD available from Comcast and Direct TV: Direct TV comes out ahead unless you love on-demand programming. If that is your preference, Comcast is the best choice.

How do Direct TV and Comcast compare when it comes to sports programming? This is one area where a definite edge goes to the satellite TV provider. Direct TV offers several premiums sports packages such as the NASCAR Hotpass and the NFL Sunday Ticket. Other packages like NHL Center Ice and the MLB Extra Innings packages are available through both Comcast and Direct TV. Of course all of these sports packages cost extra, but Direct TV is the way to go as far as having the widest variety.

In addition, Comcast seems to have more programming disputes with sports networks. Comcast and the NFL Network hate each other for a multitude of reasons, and currently the NFL Network is only available on a sports tier through Comcast. The nastiness of that dispute could mean the disappearance of the NFL Network on Comcast as it has in the past.

Finally, customer service is a final consideration when comparing Comcast vs DirecTV. How do the companies stack up in this area? While it would be difficult to describe the service level at any pay television company as excellent, Direct TV currently ranks as the best of the bunch. One recent survey placed Direct TV first among cable and satellite TV companies, while Comcast brought up the rear.

While problems and unhappy customers can result with either company, as a whole Direct TV beats Comcast in the customer service department.