What's funny (maybe not ha-ha funny, but anyway) is that the provided equipment is usually energy in-efficient as well. Even while "off".
I'm not paying for cable now, and don't plan to in the future either. There's too much crap I don't want to watch, and I don't want to be stuck with their idea of a DVR either. And its too expensive.
I came close to ordering a Ceton CableCard tuner card several times so I could stick a small form factor PC in the entertainment system and get the nice setup I used to have before they killed off all of the unencrypted digital QAM channels. Unfortunately, the standard is so encumbered that hardly any software can support CableCard (one popular option was the now-deprecated Windows Media Center).
Back when QAM still came through unencrypted, I could pay for cable and hook it up to my cheapo Hauppauge card and use WMC as a great program guide and DVR setup. Even back in the Win Vista days it was vastly superior to anything on a cable box. Then they moved everything to encrypted and my tuner got repurposed for watching OTA stuff on my PC.
Now I just pay for cable/internet but watch everything streaming on legit sites or torrents. Yeah, I know...but it works better and I'm still paying for it so even if it's not legal, I don't feel that it's immoral.
The only reason I still have it is for basketball, but there are an increasing number of services (legal or otherwise) by which I can get all of that streaming online, so I may end up cancelling even sooner if given an excuse to do so (like if service goes down or they decide to jack prices again).
After 3 months those offers expired, I'd get a high dollar bill in the mail, so I'd call again... Wash rinse, repeat. I know multiple other people who did the same thing.
Now I only have data with TWC and receive letters 2-3 times a month from to tell me all about the great TV plans they are offering.
How weird is it that the equipment is still so slow? I mean, in 2005 I was grumpy about how slow cable TV gear is. Now it's 2015 and seems like it's exactly the same, whenever I see it.
What is so hard about using processors with clock speeds measured in megahertz and not kilohertz nowadays? I swear, Comcast is probably paying extra to some supplier holding the last supply of their specialized MegaSlowz chips with the SuperProprietaryFeature that you Can't Reimplement Anywhere Else.