I had to post because I find this totally unacceptable. We live in Northern NJ, and our cable/phone/internet costs us around $170/mo. I have the "silver" package for television. My son was looking to watch the Smithsonian channel because he is into nature/science etc and I saw that we did not get the channel. I called our cable company and they said in order to get the Smithsonian channel, I would have to upgrade to the "preferred" package which includes HBO for an extra $30/month. I just find this ludicrous that and educational channel is not even being given in the "middle of the road" cable package. I am so sick of the cable company's, all their extra fees and inflated prices.