This Is Digital Cable 2.0?!

Insight Communications is the local cable monopoly, er, company. We use them for our cable TV and broadband services. I came home and found a letter in my mailbox from them touting their new “InsightDigital 2.0” service. I was excited…until I read the details. Here’s what they wasted their time, paper and postage to tell me:

They’re going to organize all my channels into theme-based categories.

Big deal. I don’t have a problem finding what I want to watch using their “InsightDigital 1.0” services, so this is less than impressive and certainly not much of an opening statement.

They’re going to add over 1,700 new movies and shows to their On Demand TV service and more than 1,000 of these will be free.

Lovely. I wonder how many of those freebies are shows nobody ever watched the first time around and will remain unwatched the second time around.

Finally, they’re adding 3 more HD channels, including ESPN2.

Well, this might mean something to me if I had an HDTV, but I don’t. Meanwhile, I’m still bitter over Insight’s decision several years ago to move ESPN Classic and ESPN News to separate, “premium” subscriptions. I refuse to pay more for them, so I miss out…but boy, it’s great to see they’re offering me 3 more HD channels!

Let’s hope “Web 2.0” doesn’t turn out to be such a non-event…

If enough companies start using the “2.0” phrase like this it’s sure to lose its meaning!