# Town with no HD channel via cable (Comcast)



## convem24 (Mar 11, 2007)

I am not a huge fan of Swanni but I thought the article was interesting since there are alternatives for folks who live in this small Illinois town. I know Directv offers local channels in HD plus national HD channels. Swanni should have mentioned that customers could get satellite TV service to alleviate there lack of HD from Comcast. Let the debate begin!

http://www.tvpredictions.com/comcast012511.htm


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## BattleZone (Nov 13, 2007)

What's to debate?

Comcast rightfully states that it isn't cost-effective for them to invest hundreds of thousands of dollars, at least, to upgrade the local franschise's head-end for HD for a town of 10,000 people, of which they'd likely have a TOTAL subscription base of 2-3,000, and probably half that for HD service. The town probably doesn't have a hospital with services that would be offered in Chicago or Philly either, nor the public transit systems, etc.

The city signed a franchise agreement with Comcast. If Comcast was violating that agreement, it's very likely that fact would have been mentioned, but it hasn't. Next time it renews/renegotiates, maybe the town will pay closer attention to "upcoming technologies" and make their availability within a certain timeframe a condition of the contract. Until then, Comcast seems to be fulfilling their contract; it's just that the town no longer likes the contract. Too bad.

The majority of the folks in this town will still have access to HD via satellite. I'm sure DirecTV and Dish do very well there.


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## RobertE (Jun 10, 2006)

This happened to the little town (village ~1000 people) my parents live in.
Originally installed 89-90ish. 50-60 channels. 1 HBO, 1 Showtime and 1 Cinemax. Was a major step up from whatever you could pickup OTA. 

Fast forward to late 2009. The mom & pop cable company changed hands from whoever, to TWC then lastly to Comcast. Channel line remained nearly identical over the past 20 years. A that point, DirecTv (and Dish) had more HD channels than they had total channels. Zero in HD.

Early 2010. Everyone who was a subscriber got a letter stating that as of the digitial transition date, their cable service would end.

When the transition got pushed back, so did the plug pulling.

From what I have gathered, Comcast did not want to pay to upgrade their headend gear to support HD and digital locals. The ROI simply wasn't there for them. The franchise agreement had also expired and was more or less on autopilot.

It was a very busy time for DirecTv and Dish installers for a while.


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## convem24 (Mar 11, 2007)

The reason I posted the article was the fact that Swanni didn't put that both Directv and Dish were much better options in that city versus Comcast. I know the ROI issue but I still feel that some customers were screwed because Comcast is the only cable play in town since not everyone can get Satellite (mdu issues or LOS issues).


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## SamC (Jan 20, 2003)

Welcome to rural and small town America. Do as little as possible crooked cable companies. No OTA reception, or a web of conflicting OTA issues born of the politics and demographics of 1952, if not 1932. 

Into that comes DBS. The godsend for rural and small town America. Which is why it is so important that we keep regulatory issues in such a way as to continue access to programming for ALL Americans on an equal basis.


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## brant (Jul 6, 2008)

SamC said:


> Welcome to rural and small town America. Do as little as possible crooked cable companies. No OTA reception, or a web of conflicting OTA issues born of the politics and demographics of 1952, if not 1932.
> 
> Into that comes DBS. The godsend for rural and small town America. Which is why it is so important that we keep regulatory issues in such a way as to continue access to programming for ALL Americans on an equal basis.


Do you have any idea what it costs to replace cable, head-end systems, etc. . .?

Obviously not, or you would know its not worth it. If you charge what it takes to recoup costs in a reasonable time frame, everyone will ***** that you're ripping them off.

I think most small town cableco's are pretty cheap anyway. I used to be on the municipal cable system; it was 70+ analog channels including HBO, Starz, Encore, the ESPN networks, everything that's popular and my bill was $25/mo. Cinemax was an additional $10/mo if you wanted it. Even comcast in the same town matched their prices on their digital cable package. Basic cable (about 50 channels) on both the city and Comcast was $15/mo.


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## scooper (Apr 22, 2002)

My area resembles this, except that we are close enough to Raleigh / Wake Forest that TWC (who bought the local cable company out in 2000) DID upgrade us (and the rest of the area - rural or not) up to the same as Raleigh, Durham, Cary and Fayetteville. However - by that time , I was already with Dish (being disgusted with a paltry 36 channel analog system at the time). I could use TWC for internet, but choose to keep using DSL from Centurylink.


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## matt (Jan 12, 2010)

Small town cable systems! :lol:

"Suddenlink keeps getting better!" my bill says. They did a major upgrade here recently and guess what? The signal is so pixelated and drops out with an error message all over town, the phone service is sometimes unusable and sounds like a cell phone, and "they are working on it" for the past month and my bill goes up in the process.

What a joke! It's slowly rising to AT&T's phone and internet prices, I am about to switch back over.


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## SamC (Jan 20, 2003)

brant said:


> Do you have any idea what it costs to replace cable, head-end systems, etc. . .?


Right now nothing. Either DirecTV or DISH will come out, rip the 1950s technology out and replace it with a modern DBS system for only a commitment to be a customer for a few years. Which is why it is so very important that we keep regularlatory issues in a way that provides that DBS, cable, and over-build compete on price and service, and not on channel availablility born of insider dealing.

As to Suddenlink. Currently the cable company around here, it changes hands every few years. Neighbor invited me to watch the game. Unwatchable.

And they just don't care. They just do not.


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## matt (Jan 12, 2010)

SamC said:


> And they just don't care. They just do not.


Especially in a college town. New customers every 2 or 4 years.


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