So, what are those two industries up to now? Read about their latest efforts to improve customer good will.
The latest effort of the airlines is to improve customers' experience by reducing seat sizes.
Feeling cramped? How to battle the shrinking airline seat - CNN.com
Of course, the cable companies do not intend to be outdone by the airlines!
The cable companies have convince the FCC to let them force all non-digital TV cable customers to digital TV (use set top boxes). They convinced the FCC that there was too much cable TV theft!
It had absolutely nothing to do with:
1) The fees for those devices after a year (many families have multiple TV sets).
2) The opportunity to reduce the chance that those customers buy a competing streaming box like apple TV, Roku, and the like.
3) They have their exclusive store front on your TV set to sell them cable pay per view or just one click away from HBO.
4) Increasing the number of viewers that they can track viewing habit and target ads... a cable advertising boon!
Cable subscribers are about to get a sneaky fee - NBC News.com
They are going about the transition in a crafty manner too. Taking away a few shows at a time and offering a free set top box (for a year). They will continue doing that a few channels at a time till people lose a channel that matters to them. They know if they did it all at once there would be a news media uproar and they might lose more customers if they figure it out.