Dollars and (Non)sense of Digital Television Part II: The Plot Thickens

Here39s a friendly note to E Sci Fi Channel AampampE truTV Animal Planet and Travel Channel Watch your ratingsWith the arrival of the summer season and the avalanche of exciting new cable programming that it brings it is likely that national ratings for most or all of these networks are on the rise E has enjoyed an early summer spike from its trashheap toppers Denise Richards It39s Complicated and Living Lohan as has AampampE from the acclaimed miniseries The Andromeda Strain But here in the tristate area or at least in the great state of Connecticut which isn39t looking quite so great now that we have the highest gas prices in the nation the good news comes with a caveat Ratings for these networks aren39t what they might have been if our local cable provider Cablevision hadn39t recently yanked them from its Family Cable package Compounding the severity of the yank Cablevision offered no reduction in the Family Cable monthly charge after doing this OuchI didn39t think much about the letter that came around a few weeks back notifying subscribers of the upcoming yank In the letter subscribers who had not yet converted to digital cable whether out of indifference or because they cannot afford monthly increases in their cable bills given what39s happening at local gas stations were offered a free digital upgrade plus one rentfree digital cable converter box for one year The free digital upgrade came with lots of new channels many of them in high definition If customers didn39t accept the free offer the letter made clear they would no longer be able to enjoy the above mentioned networks plus QVC CSPAN2 and mun2 as of May 27 Curiously Cablevision also pulled QVC competitor HSN on that date without any warningI don39t know what the response to the letter was in terms of numbers but I do know that I heard from several friends this past weekend who were miffed that they were suddenly unable to watch two Sci Fi Channel series Ghostbusters and Battlestar Galactica This isn39t the first time friends have complained to me about changes in television When I reminded them that they could receive digital cable and a converter box free for one year they replied that they couldn39t afford the new highdefinition TVs quotneededquot to receive it I then explained that digital cable works just fine with regular TV sets even though programs don39t come through in highdef Then they asked if the freeforoneyear converter box would work for all their television sets No I replied they would need to rent boxes on a monthly basis for each of their additional sets if they wanted the option of watching the above mentioned networks plus the many dazzling digital channels Cablevision provides in different roomsquotScrew thatquot came the reply Those gas prices really do have people on edge Just wait until the electric bills for all the airconditioning during this week39s punishing heat wave come in Good timesAre the responses of a few friends of mine worth writing about Once upon a time I might have said no but today when ten people can post scathing comments to a blog entry on a Web site and media experts of every stripe can then exclaim that the blogosphere is quotbuzzingquot I think my own firsthand experiences are similarly urgent and perhaps more validWhen companies such as Cablevision yank channels out of analog service they are potentially limiting the locations in which people can watch those channels even in digital homes For example the TVs in my kitchen and bedroom do not receive digital cable and I am not compelled to pay still more money to Cablevision to rent additional boxes for those rooms That means that on a leisurely Saturday morning spent in my kitchen a very nice room in which to spend time or at night when I get into bed I am no longer able to watch any of the programming on the yanked networksGoing forward this is great news for the broadcast networks and those privileged cable networks that do not become bargaining chips But if other cable systems around the country are currently executing such yanks or plan to soon begin doing so potentially millions of people are going to miss out on a lot of the great programming that many cable networks are offering this summer and in the fall And that will impact ratings no This will be an even bigger issue next February when the feds throw the big switch Multiple television homes won39t be as multiple as they are now I39m told broadcast networks will still come in on sets without converter boxes but cable networks will disappear from certain rooms in millions of homes just as E and Sci Fi Channel did from my kitchen and bedroom two weeks agoAnother issue Whether media executives and our elected officials want to admit it or not this is a terrible time in which to mandate that cable customers start paying significantly more money to their programming providers every month On NBC39s Today show earlier this week financial advisor Jean Chatzky urged cashstrapped viewers to cut premium cable among other things from their monthly budgets Next winter when fuel costs potentially wreak further havoc on the nation39s economy will she amend that statement to include basic cable packages as wellIt is not my specific intent to target Cablevision in this discussion of matters that should be of interest to anyone who works in and around television not to mention millions of consumers Cablevision happens to be my television and Internet access provider so I am familiar with the realities of its customer relations and how its actions impact consumers To end on a positive note Cablevision offers a sensational selection of high definition networks within its digital family cable package including the VOOM networks which increasingly command more and more of my optional viewing time

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Dollars and (Non)sense of Digital Television Part II: The Plot Thickens

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Ed Martin

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Dollars and (Non)sense of Digital Television Part II: The Plot Thickens

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