new HD

[skottey]

Bright House is infamous for not knowing when "new" is no longer "new." In the Tampa Bay market we got some new HD channels in December. You guys in CFL got them in February. So, here we are four months later, and the BHN website for Tampa Bay still says "Just added - more HD Channels!" and this page, HD Channel Line-Up - Bright House Networks Tampa Bay
has "new" next to channels we have now had for four months.

Attention BHN- It has been over 120 days since you added these channels. They are not NEW anymore. Add some more channels, like CinemaxHD, StarzHD, SciFI HD, Investigation Discovery HD (if it even exisits yet), History Channel International HD (if it exists yet), and many more. But your addition of History Channel HD and NatGeo HD, among the handful of channels added in December, while wonderful additions, are no longer NEW channels!

Fix the site... add us some channels!

While you are at it, I'll take Starz on Demand. Verizon Fios is coming to St. Pete in the next year or so and you really need to step it up a notch. Move more of the analog channels to digital and make some space. It takes about 5 little old ladies living on SS with their cable bills for the most basic package to equal what you get out of me every month between cable television and Internet. So you move ten more channels to digital only and free up that analog wasted bandwidth and piss off these five old ladies. So be it. There are just as many HD fans that have been faithful subscribers for over a decade as you have slowly grown your choices and have paid for your most expensive packages and added on features such as phone and Internet. We are the digital age, we are the bread and butter of your income. We are getting more choices and many will leave when Verizon comes. Give up on trying to hold onto these old accounts. Think about it... you piss off these old croggies everytime you move channels. Look at the uproar with the December channel realignment. That was insane! Tell those customers to go pound sand and focus on those of us who spend the big money and we will be with you for the next 30-50 years of our lives if you keep us happy with content. BHN- you've sunk into trying to make everybody happy while making few happy. Scrap as much of the analog as the law will allow. Tell the crybabbies to get a digital box and step into the digital age. I know they resist change. They hate it. But they need to change. You need to make the change.

Bring on more HD!!!!!! Scrap the analog!!!!!

To those with a fixed income and basic cable- You are keeping us down by resisting change. If you can't afford another $20 a month on cable, go get a first, second, or third job if you want TV bad enough. I want more HD and your cheap desire to have analog is keeping BHN from giving me more choice. They are licking your butt, and I don't know why. Maybe it is because you cry and call the newspaper everytime somebody does something you don't like.

Yes, I am bitching... but like these people... everybody bitches about something. They bitch about the government channels being moved to digital and they are the ones that bitched about an area code overlay, which due to their bitching we got an area code split here to 727. They couldn't handle ten digit dialing, and bitched enough to the point where the plan was changed to split Tampa and St. Pete into 813 and 727. All the businesses in St. Pete with 813 had to change their stationary and business cards, yellow page listings, all marketing materials, because the crybabies couldn't handle having two area codes like they do in cities like NYC.

Bitch bitch bitch! Resist change. I can bitch too! Hear me cry BHN! I'm one of the ones you make the most money off of. Follow the money trail!

 

[jcarrera]

Personally, I think the five little old ladies deserve a bit of our compassion. They probably can't get out, and the little TV they can afford is likely their only entertainment and pass-the-time vehicle.

 

[skottey]

Personally, I think the five little old ladies deserve a bit of our compassion. They probably can't get out, and the little TV they can afford is likely their only entertainment and pass-the-time vehicle.

BHN has that digital converter used to allow analog subscribers to watch the government channels now in the 600s. They are charging like $2 a month for that digital converter. I am sure they could expand the box to cover any moved channels. Let's say they move TVLand to digital. The box could be made to allow that channel to be viewed.

Who is to pay for this? It could be done any number of ways.

1- the old lady pays an extra $2-$3 a month for the box
2- they raise the cost of digital for us digital box subscribers by $3-5 a month to cover the cost of giving the old ladies the cheap converter box for free since they can't afford it (there is my compassion)
3- get enough people to "sponser" a cheap digital converter box for these people. For example, I could pay an extra $3 a month in my bill, which would be used to prvide a converter box for somebody less fortunate. I would certainly cover 1 or 2 seniors to help with this cause (there is my compassion again).
4- BHN could eat the cost and give all analog viewers these converter boxes. But back to #2, they could cover the cost by raising the cost of digital for the rest of us.

There are other solutions too... I don't mean to come across as having no compassion. You are right. I'll help out a little with a cost increase if necessary so everybody can have a cheap converter.

Where I really lack compassion specifically is the people that resist change. I hate that. I understand it, as I deal with older people all the time and they are so afraid of change. But in the broader scope of things, we as a society NEED change to stay ahead in this shrinking world. People are scared to death of their channels moving. Imagine what would happen if a REAL change took place in their lives.

 

[ddeloach1228]

Boy, wait till you get old, real old. Show a little understanding and empathy.

 

[jcarrera]

Narcissism.

 

[skottey]

Boy, wait till you get old, real old. Show a little understanding and empathy.

So we should halt progress? We should stand still because some people, including but not only the old, are afraid of change?

I am citing legitimate examples and you act as if I am the jerk.

Again, BHN changed the channels so they would be the same across the Tampa Bay community. No big deal, right? Wrong! There was mass confusion and people were in an uproar. How dare they move TCM to a different channel? They also bitched about the government channels being moved to digital, even though there is a $2-$3 box they can get.

We were running out of numbers some years back in the 813 area code, which at the time covered Pinellas and Hillsborough counties (St. Pete and Tampa respectively). Verizon and the committee that assigns the numbers decided to do an area code overlay, meaning they would use both 727 and 813 area codes in the entire metro covered by 813, requiring 10 digit dialing. Existing numbers would stay the same. If you had a business in Clearwater you'd keep the 813. If you added a new number in Tampa or St Pete, chances are you'd get a 727 since 813 was running out. They were going to use both area codes for the entire community. Several metros around the nation had already successfully done this, also requiring 10 digit dialing. And then came the crybabies. They came out in groves to bitch about the change. They didn't want 10 digit dialing. It would be too many numbers to remember. So Verizon and the area code committee caved and split the area code into two. Many businesses were faced with ordering new business cards and stationary, changing ads they paid for to have designed, changing contact information with all their contacts. Because all these people resisted the change in the way things were being done (10 digit dialing), the area code was split instead.

These are just a few examples of society resisting change. This slows down progress. People of all ages, especially the older people, are scared to death of change.

Yes, I will be old someday and probably be afraid of change myself. So what. If my family says it is time for me to go into a nursing home because I need round the clock care should I resist and burden them with my Bullsh!t? Change may not always be sexy or glamorous, but it is necessary to progress as a society.

BHN needs to start moving analog channels over to digital and force change.

 

[skottey]

Narcissism.

hardly.

 

[jcarrera]

So we should halt progress? We should stand still because some people, including but not only the old, are afraid of change?

You want to take away their service regardless of whether they are afraid of change--or force them to pay more--just so you can have more channels. You don't care if it is at their expense.

Using the 'afraid of change' to put the issue on the old ladies heads is a red herring. You want it regardless of their needs, or attitude.

 

[skottey]

You want to take away their service regardless of whether they are afraid of change--or force them to pay more--just so you can have more channels. You don't care if it is at their expense.

Using the 'afraid of change' to put the issue on the old ladies heads is a red herring. You want it regardless of their needs, or attitude.

I did say I'd be willing to subsidize the $2-$3 digital converters for the people that cannot afford them by either paying a higher fee for digital so everybody gets a digital converter for the channels that get moved or I'd be willing to sponsor one or two people. But I think a behind the scenes rate increase would be the way to go and then BHN would provide everybody that has analog with such a converter. I think that is fair, don't you?

 

[rad]

I did say I'd be willing to subsidize the $2-$3 digital converters for the people that cannot afford them by either paying a higher fee for digital so everybody gets a digital converter for the channels that get moved or I'd be willing to sponsor one or two people. But I think a behind the scenes rate increase would be the way to go and then BHN would provide everybody that has analog with such a converter. I think that is fair, don't you?

Please don't go there. Look at your phone bill at the charges we've got for subsidizing rural POTS and internet services in schools. Most of the money pays for government overhead or not for the original purpose.

 

[stevenl]

I agree with scottey. We need to start moving more and more all digital. If you raise everyones cable by 50cent it will well in cover the 20-20k people who may need that converter box. Give the first for free and charge for each additional ones. .50 per sub x 1million subs is quite a bit of money a month to cover converters...

 

[Khandurian]

They are charging like $2 a month for that digital converter.

I don't know about other areas, but here in brevard they have a digital box for $1. They serve a dual purpose. For those old tv's that can't support the digital signal and for the gov. channels that moved to strictly digital signals.

Heres the kicker, its a one time fee! You only pay that $1 at the time of install. It's not even a re-occurring fee!

So the plan is there and were already doing it here.

 

[skottey]

I don't know about other areas, but here in brevard they have a digital box for $1. They serve a dual purpose. For those old tv's that can't support the digital signal and for the gov. channels that moved to strictly digital signals.

Heres the kicker, its a one time fee! You only pay that $1 at the time of install. It's not even a re-occurring fee!

So the plan is there and were already doing it here.

That is great news.... I like that plan. They are charging a few dollars a month for the device here in the Tampa Bay market. We really need to get moving ahead with digital only. Hell, if nothing else they could cut down on piracy. I have known many people in apartments and houses over the years that have just tapped into the main line and had free analog service. If it was all digital and required a box, this would be harder to fraud. I remember when just putting in a splitter on Roadrunner gave you all the analog channels and many people just paid for the Internet... $45 for high speed and standard cable with no tax was a deal for the casual TV watcher.... considering basic cable alone was like $20-$30 plus taxes at the time.

Really... I like what you said. That would be a win-win for all subscribers. If the customer can't afford the $1, which has been subsidized by BHN already in that they are paying an installer and the box certainly costs them more than that, than that customer shouldn't have cable at all. It is $1... less than the cost of a cup of McDonalds coffee.

Anybody that bitches about this $1 plan is just bitching for the sake of bitching.

 

[XSwiftX]

Have some patience. By this time next year everyone will have to have a box of some sort. Also have some compassion. I had an old lady who was legally blind and was a standard subscriber. She had memorized her TV remote and had no trouble finding her channels. The channel change which switched Telemundo to the box upset her whole world. She could not see the remote enough to know what the button functions were. The boxes provided at $1 for accessing Telemundo have no guide function and she could not have read the text on screen anyway. The whole process was so frustrating for her she finally just switched to basic only so she could retain her ability to watch tv. But this time next year she will have no choice left but to get a box or not watch TV. Remember she is legally blind so she doesn't get out much. All she had was TV and her favorite channel was Telemundo. She was willing to settle for Galavision, but soon she won't even have that. Screwing over the Elderly for the sake of change is not something I want on my conscience.

 

[skottey]

Have some patience. By this time next year everyone will have to have a box of some sort. Also have some compassion. I had an old lady who was legally blind and was a standard subscriber. She had memorized her TV remote and had no trouble finding her channels. The channel change which switched Telemundo to the box upset her whole world. She could not see the remote enough to know what the button functions were. The boxes provided at $1 for accessing Telemundo have no guide function and she could not have read the text on screen anyway. The whole process was so frustrating for her she finally just switched to basic only so she could retain her ability to watch tv. But this time next year she will have no choice left but to get a box or not watch TV. Remember she is legally blind so she doesn't get out much. All she had was TV and her favorite channel was Telemundo. She was willing to settle for Galavision, but soon she won't even have that. Screwing over the Elderly for the sake of change is not something I want on my conscience.

So let's stop the world for this one lady.

If all she "watches" is Telemundo, have somebody tune it to that station and never change channels. Problem solved.

Seriously, if she is legally blind, she MUST have SOMEBODY caring for her with at least a daily visit to prepare a meal or do some jobs for her. They can tune the TV to her station.

I don't mean to sound like a jerk but let's not stop progress for one sad case like this lady.

Like you said, in a year everybody will have a box... so let's not put it off any longer. The sooner the changes are made the better.