Hotel TV

Motel in Mesa, AZ which gets HBO and Fox 10.

Whether you stay at a nice hotel in the big city or even a cheap fleabag motel in the middle of nowhere there will always be a TV in the room.  Many motels will say if there's HBO.  Used to be lucky to have colour TV or even cable in the old days!  When I go somewhere I don't go often I like to see what the local lineup is ahead of time unless it's somewhere I know well enough that I have it committed to memory but the varied nature of national TV means it's like the lottery machine as to which numbers go where for both terrestrial and pay-TV networks,  They always used to say and still do, "Check your local listings" (a rule of thumb with domestic syndication in laymans terms).  I get settled for the night and a list of what's available can be out of date if something changed its name (it could say Court TV instead of TruTV as it's called today) or the lesser known ones are missing (like the CW or myNetwork TV while CBS, C-SPAN or PBS are a given).  Of course you book a hotel 'cos you're on holiday, business, going to an event or what-have-you.  It can give you a sense of home if you like (within US soil anyway, but abroad, you may get a bit of culture shock if you don't find something familiar straight away).  Some hotels will have cable, but others I've gone to have satellite (one had DirecTV and another I think Comcast).  Usually pay-per-view and a looping tourism video channel will also be offered.  I just notice patterns over the years.  For countries with licence fees like the UK I wonder if they pay one per set or hotel and what the HMRCs (the UKs IRS if you like) policy on write offs are but that's another blog!  I just hope I can catch some Corrie again next time!