Sometimes, press releases are funny. Not funny ha-ha, but funny strange.
For example, one crossed our desk yesterday from MTN. You may not know what the acronym stands for but if you've been on a cruise ship you've been affected by MTN, by far the industry leader in transmitting TV service to ships.
It seems that because of MTN's expanding technology, we the passengers will now be able to watch TV shows, shore excursion promos and anything that's on your stateroom TV…from our portable "device."
In our case, that's our two-month-old iPad.
So, here's the strange part for those of us who are somewhat technology challenged…
How much?
According to MTN, we can now "access entertainment and news programming, and other content, from anywhere on the ship using personal mobile devices" to our "WiFi-enabled devices." In our technology-challenged world, using a WiFi enabled device means being connected to the Internet…and that means paying.
The financial impact on we the passengers is (conveniently) ignored in the press release, as is the fact that the world's best-known news channel, CNN, is not part of the package. What is part of the package are 770 sports events, CNBC, Fox News…
One of the sports events it includes is Major League Baseball playoffs. Can you just imagine, if you have to pay the ship's going connectivity rates, how much that baby would cost to watch from poolside…even if it doesn't go into extra innings?