A followup to this article has been published. In “Comcast: Cable Modem Rentals Contribute More Than Olympics” I left Comcast ’s set-top box rentals out of my analysis because I didn’t think customers ...

James is wondering: Can he avoid Time Warner Cable’s monthly fee to lease a set-top box by purchasing his own hardware? In a word, no. There are no generic equivalents for the company’s digital boxes.

Starting this week, federal regulators are giving cable television customers the option of buying their own set-top boxes instead of leasing them. Consumers will decide whether there's a reason to ...

[Peter]’s folks’ cable company is terrible – such a surprise for a cable TV provider – and the digital part of their cable subscription will only work with the company’s cable boxes. The cable company ...