We live in a digital world. When it comes to the home entertainment industry, digital technology has come of age. Satellite tv and cable television both offer digital programming deals and services. On the one hand, satellite tv dazzles you with a 100% all digital programming service on all fronts. On the other hand, cable television may offer you something similar but in most cases you will have to pay extra money in order to receive their digital services.

Satellite dish providers are capable of offering their deals to customers in almost every location within the United States. This gives the satellite dish providers the upper hand and also the incentive to make sure that their satellite dish services are better than those that are offered by the main competition, cable television.

Package Deals - Investigate the programming packages that your local cable company has to offer. Compare their package deals to what you could get if you were to opt for a satellite dish. If either one has a programming package that is especially attractive to you then you may want to go with that.

Signal Quality - The signals that are sent with cable television, even when they are at their highest quality, are dispersed from their original source to arrive at a regional reception base. The (weakened) signal is then transmitted to the receiver at the local cable company. Finally, it is then sent to the tv receiver in your home. All of that transfer can easily change the quality of the signal. In stark contrast, satellite tv signals are sent straight from the source directly to the dish on your roof.

Availability - No matter where you live, a clear view of the southern sky is all that is needed in order to receive a satellite tv signal with your dish. Nearly 98% of all homes in the United States are capable to getting satellite tv reception. Cable television, on the other hand, normally requires that you live inside the city limits (or in a limited number of areas on the outskirts of town) in order to be a part of their service coverage area. Cable tv coverage does continue to expand but satellite coverage is still more encompassing.

Downtime - With satellite tv weather can sometimes be a consideration, but not by much. There are some rare weather conditions that may have an effect on the strength of the satellite signal but this just doesn't happen very often. Claims of weather-related satellite dish problems have been very much exagerrated by the cable tv companies. This is merely an effort on their part to get more business. Overall, satellite dish system owners will experience about a 1% downtime. With cable television the average downtime is roughly 3-5%. In fact, Dish Network customers have much more up-time every year than the average cable customer.

In most cases, having a satellite tv dish is less expensive than using cable television as your means of getting your daily dose of programming. Also, having a satellite dish offers you more programming choices. With satellite tv you can get your local channels (In select markets). You can also enjoy your television programming options in multiple rooms. These are some of the main reasons that many people previously chose cable television over satellite tv. These days that trend has been reversed.