Granite City to Charter: We want Channel 10 back!

[nomadcowatbk]

http://www.stltoday.com/suburban-jo...cle_5280f6ee-f16c-5e67-b2a3-d35f0142d91c.html

 

[nathannah]

We dealt with the same thing a couple years ago on Charter where I am, and most everyone does already have a box. But the state public access PR group threw a fit and forced Charter to keep on analog public access counterparts on the 90 tier, scuttling a much-needed channel shuffle and addition of a Spanish-language tier to our system (in a city with quite a large Hispanic population who can't be happy to only have Univision as their only Spanish choice). It took us three years to get even Telemundo and we don't have half the HD channels other Charter systems in Michigan and Connecticut get solely based on this. Two of the public access channels we get don't even work 90% of the time, one shows a still screen of their village hall all the time, and the last one is over-modulated to the point of constant buzzing and is unwatchable except on mute.

I would think though there is a declining amount of homes which utilize their cable-ready TV's to receive only what is passed through via analog cable. In a couple of years when all cable systems are digital-only, this won't be an issue at all.

 

[MarcB]

COX did this in Connecticut on December 14, 2010. They remained on Channels 14-16, but they became Digital Only. If you had an HDTV, but no box they appear in the 120 range. Something really strange like 121.15 or something equally as odd. Meanwhile there still is no Public Access Programming on The Meriden Cox Franchise. The roof caved in from the snow at COX Channel 15 in Cheshire a few weeks ago. They got their bulletin-board back up and running, but programming is still suspended.

 

[nomadcowatbk]

We dealt with the same thing a couple years ago on Charter where I am, and most everyone does already have a box. But the state public access PR group threw a fit and forced Charter to keep on analog public access counterparts on the 90 tier, scuttling a much-needed channel shuffle and addition of a Spanish-language tier to our system (in a city with quite a large Hispanic population who can't be happy to only have Univision as their only Spanish choice). It took us three years to get even Telemundo and we don't have half the HD channels other Charter systems in Michigan and Connecticut get solely based on this. Two of the public access channels we get don't even work 90% of the time, one shows a still screen of their village hall all the time, and the last one is over-modulated to the point of constant buzzing and is unwatchable except on mute.

I would think though there is a declining amount of homes which utilize their cable-ready TV's to receive only what is passed through via analog cable. In a couple of years when all cable systems are digital-only, this won't be an issue at all.

Mediacom in the Columbia MO moved the public access channels to digital and some complained. Many towns put webcast city council meetings and other city information on their websites. These channels show mostly powerpoint presentations as filler. Some 80 year old will complain they can't get the city hall channel on their 20 year old 25 inch tube TV when the cable system goes all digital but these people do vote unlike their grandchildren with their 52 inch flat screens. CSPAN also has stream of all it's channels. Some will not get new TVs until their state of the art (in 1990) 25' RCA Colortrak breaks