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Monday, August 3, 2009
Time Warner to drop seven PBS channels locally, realign digital TV
Local cable customers will have to retrain their remote control fingers in a matter of weeks.
Time Warner Cable will drop seven of the 16 public television channels it offers locally on Aug. 25 and unveil a major realignment of it digital cable line, said Michael Pedelty, a vice president of communications.
Local public television stations are concerned about the changes.
David Fogarty, President of Public Media Connect, said he has been in meetings with Time Warner concern the impact on ThinkTV16/WPTD, ThinkTV14/WPTO and CET.
“There will be significant impact on our stations,” he said declining further comment.
While most of the public television changes will affect digital customers - about half of Time Warner’s customer base -, basic cable and those who watch high definition channel will also experience cuts.
WOSU, which is airs in Troy, Piqua, St. Paris, Tipp City, West Milton, Covington, Sidney, Anna, Rosewood, Urbana, will be cut from the basic cable line up and WCET from the high definition line up.
The company will add The Big Ten Network HD, Starz HD and Cinemax HD will be added.
WCET Create, WPTO Digital, WPTO Prime, WPTO Learn and WPTO World will be dropped from the company’s digital cable while Daystar, Word, Inspiration Network, TBN and Sundance will be added.
When all is said and done, nine public television stations, three on basic cable, two for HD users and four for digital cable subscribers will remain.
The three basic public channels will be WPTO, WCET and WPTD. Basic cable cost about $59.
Pedelty said the stations will be removed to reduce programming duplications and to streamline service.
A simular reduction was announced in the Cincinnati market last week.
“We still have an abundance of PBS options,” he said.
In the Miami Valley, Pedelty said the realignment means, some digital cable channels will change location.
Channels will be lumped together based on themes such as “Kids and Family,” “Learning and Discovery,” “Shopping,” “Movies” and “News and Weather.”
“We are trying to make it easy on customers,” Pedelty said. “It is definitely in the customer’s benefit in the long term.”
for instance, QVC, HSN and Shop NBC are grouped together under the catogory “Shopping.” Their channel designations are in sequence, channel 175, 176 and 177.
Pedelty said that several stations will be added to special packages, including Telmundo to the Spanish language packet, Nuestra Tele.
Customers in Warren County, which is in the Cincinnati cable market, will lose Dayton based CW affiliate WBDT and be shift to received Cincinnati’s WKRC.
What do you think?
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