Lots of changes to Comcast Middletown Channel line-up

[DJKraze]

Woke up this morning and was looking up and down the dial, but got a little lost, after the fog in my head from just waking up cleared, I realized things have been shuffled again, and a bunch of stuff removed:

Here's the old line-up vs new lineup of just the changed channels for expanded basic up to only 99, no digital)

23 Bravo moved to 37, now FOX News[?] Channel
24 AMC moved to 38, now CNBC
25 VERSUS moved to 27, now CNN
26 The Weather Channel moved to 95, now MSNBC
27 Travel Channel removed? now VERSUS
37 Court TV removed? now Bravo
38 Hallmark Channel removed? now AMC
47 Discovery Channel - uncertain, religious programming as I write this, I'm assuming no change
49 Food Network - uncertain, infomercial programming as I write this, I'm assuming no change
59 Fox News moved to 23, now empty
60 CNBC moved to 24, now empty
61 CNN Headline News moved to 70, now color bars
62 CNN moved to 25, now empty
63 MSNBC moved to 26, now empty
70 GSN removed? now CNN Headline News
71 CMT removed?, now blank
95 TV Guide removed now CTN
98 C-SPAN2 removed, now The Weather Channel
99 CTN moved to 95, uncertain, infomercial programming as I write this, I'm guessing Travel channel, but no way to tell right now

I only call the missing channels removed as I don't have digital, so I don't know if they've been moved there. I hope the significant drop in number of channels means a significant drop in the bill??? (Ok, I know that's a joke, but maybe a call is needed to the DPUC? I mean the rates just keep going up and service keeps going down)

 

[BRNout]

So you essentially lost 6 channels? This is just an extension of the continued move of channels to digital to preserve bandwidth for high-speed internet. The unfair part of this is that your monthly bill will not be discounted to reflect the change.

The more I see of the way that cable companies treat their customers, the more I support the idea of increased competition. In fact, I think that the government authorities should insist on it. At the moment, your local cable company essentially has a monopoly and is acting the part. Comcast is particularly adept at behaving this way, but the pretty much all do it. And, too few communities have FIOS available. The way in which cable is distributed needs to end....

 

[necrat123]

Oh but how nice is it to be in a town where FIOS is competing!
I just tell COX I am considering switching to FIOS every time my special offer is about to expire and get an additional 6 months... works great. I'll never pay full price again.

 

[DJKraze]

So you essentially lost 6 channels? This is just an extension of the continued move of channels to digital to preserve bandwidth for high-speed internet. The unfair part of this is that your monthly bill will not be discounted to reflect the change.

The more I see of the way that cable companies treat their customers, the more I support the idea of increased competition. In fact, I think that the government authorities should insist on it. At the moment, your local cable company essentially has a monopoly and is acting the part. Comcast is particularly adept at behaving this way, but the pretty much all do it. And, too few communities have FIOS available. The way in which cable is distributed needs to end....

Yeah, I know that this is all about bandwidth, what they need to do is have more than one system networked up on the poles, make one for all that digital stuff (internet, phone, whatever) and have one for the television services, (I'm not suggesting one for just analog, digital video can be on there too), as long as they can keep signal leakage down, it shouldn't be a problem.

Then maybe they can justify the increased costs.

 

[BRNout]

Oh but how nice is it to be in a town where FIOS is competing!
I just tell COX I am considering switching to FIOS every time my special offer is about to expire and get an additional 6 months... works great. I'll never pay full price again.

You're quite right about that!!! And, cheers to your bargaining skills!! I love to read stories like this. And, clearly, it is the spectre of competition that keeps these guys honest. When there is none (and dishes don't really count), they get to be tyrannical.

Sadly, I moved from a place that was about to get FIOS to one that isn't. Bad deal...

 

[MarcB]

I'm glad I live in COX territory. (Though we're considering jumping ship to Direct TV). Anyway For years NUTMEG TV The Public Access TV station serving COMCAST subscribers in Avon, Berlin, Bristol, Burlington, Canton, Farmington, New Britain, and Plainville provided live coverage of The Bristol Mum Festival Parade. Typically it was 1PM-3:30PM and they showed it on their 3 Channels (Public, Goverment, and Educational Access). However beginning in 2005 Nutmeg TV announced the parade would no longer air live because airing the parade live because COMCAST told them it ate up too much bandwith and caused problems with their ON-DEMAND Service and their High-Speed Internet Service. So NUTMEG TV went back to airing the parade on Delay Tape only, which is what they did for the first couple years that they covered the parade. Kind of sad that in 2007 they're back to using 1990s technology for the parade.