actor90
Phillies 2008 World Champions
Premium
join:2003-07-21
L.E.H.T., NJ
 ·Comcast
 ·ViaTalk
2 edits | Comcast removing WCAU from analog in Ocean County, NJ
As of tomorrow November 15, 2006 Comcast of Toms River, NJ is removing channel 10 WCAU the Philadelphia NBC station from the analog line up to channel 253 which requires a Digital box to receive it. Since the beginning of cable here in Ocean County we have always gotten both the Philadelphia and New York stations because our area covers a large territory which includes people from the New York area to the north and people from the Philadelphia area to the south. Comcast has decided to break a 30 year tradition by moving a Philadelphia station off the air for the elderly and people on fixed incomes who can not afford digital cable.
They are even running a scroll on channel 10 telling people if they want to continue receiving it, they will need to subscribe to a digital package. My area has a large number of senior citizens who are on fixed incomes and only subscribe to the lowest tier of service which includes mostly the broadcast channels. Receiving broadcast channels here by antenna is hit or miss because we are on the shore and far from most television towers.
Comcast is trying to force more money out of those least able to afford it. I can understand moving cable networks to digital, but taking broadcast channels from those that only ask for that in their service, and forcing them into an unwanted, more expensive tier of service is a crime.
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celeritypc
For Lucky Best Wash, Use Mr. Sparkle
Premium
join:2004-05-15
Caldwell, NJ | How many threads are we going to have on this subject? |
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actor90
Phillies 2008 World Champions
Premium
join:2003-07-21
L.E.H.T., NJ | This is a separate issue from the WNBC removal. This is WCAU. |
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Steely
Dumped Comcast for FiOS
Premium
join:2000-10-15
Princeton Junction, NJ | reply to actor90
Anyone interested can follow the links in my other posts:
»Re: Comcast Central New jersey Removes wnbc new york |
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Jean09
join:2005-12-26 | Well WCAU is gone from analog cable on Comcast of Ocean County (Brick, Pt. Pleasant, Bay Head & Mantoloking). Let the complaints come in.
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Comcast of Ocean County (Brick) |
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Steely
Dumped Comcast for FiOS
Premium
join:2000-10-15
Princeton Junction, NJ
| I watched live as they "pulled the plug" on WNBC channel 4 on both analog and digital just after 2 AM this morning. The screen of solid "snow" on the analog set hit me like a direct slap in the face. I promptly composed an appropriate e-mail and zinged it off to Comcast.
To my surprise, a reply was already in my mailbox when I arrived back at the computer at 7:30 AM. (I'd post it, but it came complete with a warning about "unauthorized use or dissemination" of the message.) |
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cypherstream
Looking forward to the future of things.
Premium,MVM
join:2004-12-02
Reading, PA
clubs:
| reply to actor90
I wonder why they didn't pick a different channel to move to digital? What else do you guys have on analog that you'd be able to see moving to digital? I know they need to make room for future services, but an OTA geeze, I thought that would fall under FCC must carry rules. We have loads of OTA available on basic cable because the FCC says so.
Don't you guys have something better to move? (Shopping channels, CMT, Game Show, Hallmark, Court TV, Speed Channel, Golf Channel, EWTN, Discovery Health, MTV2- are some of the most common ones to move to digital). |
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Jean09
join:2005-12-26
·Comcast
| reply to Steely
WCAU went off around 1 AM this morning down here on my system (Comcast of Ocean County). If it was 100% Comcast's decision, I think that a better channel could of been chosen to be moved to digital. So far this year they've removed CMT, ESPN Classic & GSN from analog cable, all channels that you could argue, have viewership but aren't necessarily the most popular among most subscribers. WCAU however was a channel that I and many others watched significantly down here and it's an absolute shame that it was removed from analog. What's next the local PEG channels?
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Comcast of Ocean County (Brick) |
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TurboDan
join:2006-06-08
Point Pleasant Beach, NJ
| reply to actor90
Well, I've done a little snooping around.
Turns out FiOS in Maryland not only is offering both sets of locals (DC and Balt) on analog, but they offer the HD feeds of BOTH sets of locals! Someone mentioned on here that Verizon will be carrying both sets of locals here, so I'm sure we can expect both HDs as well.
Can't wait 'til 2007! |
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mbernste
Boosted
Premium,MVM
join:2001-06-30
Piscataway, NJ
·Comcast
·Optimum Online
| reply to actor90
There's always another option. If you can't afford digital cable (and many can't), go back to rabbit ears until the FCC mandated digital switchover. When that happens, Comcast will most likely be giving out, free of charge, the DCT-1700 digital cable box. |
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Steely
Dumped Comcast for FiOS
Premium
join:2000-10-15
Princeton Junction, NJ
| said by mbernste  :There's always another option. If you can't afford digital cable (and many can't), go back to rabbit ears until the FCC mandated digital switchover. Although in theory your suggestion is a decent one, the problem with using rabbit ears is that many of the affected areas (parts of Mercer and Ocean counties, for example) are far enough from NYC, Philly or both that OTA reception would be challenging at the very least. In the old days folks in central NJ desiring to receive the maximum amount of channels would mount quality antennas on their roofs and then rotate them either mechanically or manually as needed for optimum reception. Nobody's going to do that now. |
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mbernste
Boosted
Premium,MVM
join:2001-06-30
Piscataway, NJ
·Comcast
·Optimum Online
| said by Steely :In the old days folks in central NJ desiring to receive the maximum amount of channels would mount quality antennas on their roofs and then rotate them either mechanically or manually as needed for optimum reception. Nobody's going to do that now. Well, if the people affected are unwilling to take matters into their own hands and implement their own solution, they deserve to not receive the channels. |
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Steely
Dumped Comcast for FiOS
Premium
join:2000-10-15
Princeton Junction, NJ
| Just because people may not know how to respond effectively in this situation doesn't mean they don't deserve to receive the channels.
The first steps to finding a solution do not necessarily involve the purchase and installation of expensive and cumbersome roof antennas and rotors. There are other avenues to pursue before going to that extreme. People in the affected area are calling and writing to various agencies including Comcast and the respective NBC channels. Although it may not have the desired effect, I think that's a sensible start. |
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celeritypc
For Lucky Best Wash, Use Mr. Sparkle
Premium
join:2004-05-15
Caldwell, NJ
| said by Steely :The first steps to finding a solution do not necessarily involve the purchase and installation of expensive and cumbersome roof antennas and rotors. There are other avenues to pursue before going to that extreme. People in the affected area are calling and writing to various agencies including Comcast and the respective NBC channels. Although it may not have the desired effect, I think that's a sensible start. You are correct. If you are unhappy with the change, you should contact the respective parties involved (Comcast, WCAU, WNBC, etc.) It seems that several issues are driving this with the problem that people seem to want to have their cake and eat it too.
1. Ocean is in the NYC DMA and Mercer is in Philly. Because of this, cable companies are only required to negotiate for the in-market OTAs. Adjacent market OTAs are optional, not mandatory.
2. A majority of the programming on the channels is duplicated. WCAU and WNBC pretty much have the same programming, especially the network portion.
3. Cable subscribers are demanding new services and channels while the cable companies have bandwidth constraints.
4. All OTA is moving to digital transmission by 2010, thus requiring a digital box of some sort for non-cable subscribers.
5. In the case of Comcast, they are not eliminating the duplicate network, just moving it to digital (my guess is that it is available with enhanced basic or limited basic with a digital box.)
6. At this time, it only applies to NBC. If it is indeed a Comcast decision, it was made with the implicit consent of NBC. I'm sure NBC got something out of the deal. It is possible that NBC wanted to up the amount Comcast had to pay for the out of market channel and placing it on digital was a compromise from dropping it completely. |
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TurboDan
join:2006-06-08
Point Pleasant Beach, NJ
2 edits | reply to actor90
UPDATE... actually HUGE UPDATE!
Through a professional contact, I've been in touch with someone at NJBPU. (Board of Public Utilities) It was absolutely NOT the decision of WNBC or WCAU to do this. That has been CONFIRMED.
He said NJBPU was "forced" to approve Comcast's decision because Mercer is in the Philly DMA and Ocean is in the NYC DMA.
I will quote the final line of his message to me, which should give us hope...
quote:
Would you like to know what Verizon will be doing when they launch video in various NJ communities before Christmas? I'm heading up the technical review and I'd love to tell you, but its proprietary and I'm sworn to secrecy - sorry!
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TurboDan
join:2006-06-08
Point Pleasant Beach, NJ | reply to actor90
Another quick question - why can't they just map WCAU to channel 10 on digital boxes, as they did for a few days before the switch anyway? |
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Steely
Dumped Comcast for FiOS
Premium
join:2000-10-15
Princeton Junction, NJ | Why would that matter? |
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TurboDan
join:2006-06-08
Point Pleasant Beach, NJ | Err, because it's annoying to have to tune to 253 to get channel 10, especially when there's nothing mapped to 10 anyway? |
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Steely
Dumped Comcast for FiOS
Premium
join:2000-10-15
Princeton Junction, NJ
| I think they wouldn't do that (it would be for channel 4 in my area) because right now they want to maintain some kind of consistency between the analog and digital channel assignments where they overlap below channel 100 or so. Once analog goes away completely it wouldn't matter, although I doubt they'd move them back anyway. |
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PGHammer
join:2003-06-09
Accokeek, MD
clubs:
·Comcast
| reply to celeritypc
Both stations are NBC owned and operated; so it had to be with the explicit consent of NBC. In fact, it may have been at the *request* of NBC, as that most programming (likely pretty much *all* non-local programming) was duplicated on the two stations. This is similar to the infamous *syndex* rule, and (unfortunately) makes sense. |
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