Making the choice between cablevision and satellite for your television reception is a tough one. Both offer a broad range of programming choices, price ranges, and clear reception, but there are differences that you should be aware of before making your final decision.

Channel Choices

Although cable and satellite both offer the premium channels like Showtime, Home Box Office, and Cinemax, if you are interested in foreign language channels other than Spanish, satellite would be the choice for you. A satellite dish has the capability to bring you programming from across the world. Soccer games and even soap operas that are being broadcast in Italy can be shown every night in your living room. Multi-language speaking families who have relocated to the United States have the opportunity to keep up with the local happenings of their home countries by watching the daily news from there. I'll tell you that for those of us raised in the good old US of A, it can be very interesting to hear the same news relayed from another country's perspective.

With a satellite dish you also have the option of getting a local feed from a different part of the country than where you live. My mom, for instance, lives in Florida but watches the New York feed for her daily news. It used to be a problem getting your local stations with a satellite dish but I believe, that in most areas, for an additional fee, they have rectified that. Being able to get different area feeds is also important to the sports fan who may have relocated or whose favorite team originates from a different region than the one they live in.

Weather Problems

Satellite television is notorious for having reception problems during inclement weather. Although cable can and will go out if a line is taken down during a serious ice or snow storm, satellite dishes can give you problems even on a cloudy day. Even the sun can sometimes interfere with your satellite reception. When you have these problems, you need to adjust your satellite which is not always that easy for a layperson to do.

On the other hand, when the satellite is having a reception problem, it tends to last for a short period of time, whereas when a cable line is down, it can take hours before it gets repaired. With a serious problem, it can take days before your service is up and running again.