Lately I’ve been sharing a story that “I read somewhere” (no really, I’m pretty sure I did, or maybe I heard about it from a friend…) that illustrates something about human psychology.
Supposedly, some genius at [Your Local Cable TV Company] has discovered that the recovery rate for delinquent accounts (i.e., getting deadbeats to pay what they owe on their cable bill) is much greater if instead of simply cutting the service off, they change the service to show all CSPAN, all the time, on all channels.
This is apparently far more annoying (and thus effective at getting people to pay up) than simply having no cable TV at all.
I love this story. But it crossed my mind the last time I told it that I don’t remember where I actually read it. Hmmm…
Not that I mind being a vector for an Urban Legend (heck, I’ll still tell this story anyway even if it is one), but I’d prefer being a knowing vector. Can anyone help confirm or deny the veracity of this story?
I didn’t find anything on the Snopes website, but it sounds to me like one of those satirical stories that get mistaken for fact. A lot of Urban Legends start their life as jokes, and somehow get passed along as something that actually happened.
I’m not even sure a cable company could do that, it sounds quite implausible to me.
I don’t think that the cable company could do this. It would involve changing the content for every single channel for one subscriber only. I don’t think that current set-top box technology is that advanced at this point.
You wouldn’t have to change the actual video being sent to the subscriber. Since digital cable boxes are individually addressable and highly programmable, you could just tell the deadbeat’s box to only show CSPAN, no matter what channel the user selects. This seems possible, since the channels on digital cable systems sometimes don’t even correspond directly to the actual modulated signals in the wire.
With analog cable, it would actually be pricier to do this than it would be to just disconnect your service.
You’d need to splice a device in series with the “cable” that would accomplish this, and you’d need to do it somewhere relatively near the residence.
With digital cable, you should be able to do this with software, but I’m still calling BS on the whole thing.
Also, not to be too obvious, but the consumer could achieve the same effect as having his service cut off by using the technology known as the off button.