There are millions of homes moving from cable television to satellite TV each year. Those little 18 inch satellite dishes for the direct-to-home satellite services are seen every where, and chances are if you drive by two houses, one of them as a dish.

So, why the mass move to satellite TV? Can it be so much better than cable?

The following a just a few of the differences between cable and satellite TV.

Price

On average, basic cable will run you between $40 and $50 per month, and you will be charged a bit more for any add-ons or for digital programming.

You will also have to pay for adding cable to rooms within your home that don’t have the proper connections already installed. With satellite, the average price for basic service, which generally includes digital channels, is between $30 and $40.

Choice

Generally, the choices in cable TV programming are more limited than satellite TV channels, or you have to pay more to get the same number of channels. Cable TV providers are also behind in the number of high-definition channels being offered.

Outages

According to studies and statistics provided by all the cable and satellite providers, cable TV providers nationwide experienced 3 to 5% outages, while satellite TV providers only experienced 1%.

Customer Service

For the past five years, the top satellite TV providers were ranked higher than the top cable companies by JD Powers and Associates.

Local Programming

Although years ago, you could not get local programming through satellite, this is generally no longer the case. This was one of the main reasons people chose not to go with satellite TV. Currently, the top level satellite TV providers have options for local programming in most of the nation.

With all of this information, it seems that satellite TV is the clear choice for anyone who watches a lot of TV or who wants to have access to unique programming choices.

Satellite TV is obviously one of the important waves of television in the future, and provides a great deal of choice and more packages than most cable companies.

Of course, in some areas, basic cable is still much cheaper than satellite TV, and for those that only want to watch the news and a few local programming choices, this is probably the better option.

An exciting development is that you can now access satellite TV through your PC. For those who would otherwise not be able to afford a satellite service, this creates a lot of opportunities.