said by anon anon :So Charter should keep channelsw on analog for people that don't want to upgrade their old SD CRT TVs? You do realize analog uses up a ton of bandwidth. Moving those 16 channels to digital frees up enough bandwidth to add nearly 30 HD channels.
Charter has rolled out SDV here in Madison, so they do not need to retire analog channels to roll out further HD channels. Charter and Time Warner have shown that with SDV, you can have large HD channel lineups without having to eliminate analog service.
I understand the legitimate arguments for killing the analog lineup -- it eliminates cable theft and frees up bandwidth for Internet service. But I don't need Charter to spin me a yarn about how this has to be done to add new HD channels. Let's call a spade a spade.
This is all about money. And that's fine, they're a business. Charter has historically not, however, been the most well-run business. Forgive me if I am skeptical that Charter will soon offer faster than 100 Mbps service or that the little money they recover from the folks currently stealing cable who would pay for it if they can no longer freeload will offset the loss of other customers. Customers who, now forced to pay for a box for the 2nd/3rd/etc TV they hooked up (or businesses like gyms & hotels that relied on the analog lineup) will look into satellite service, which offer more value for the money than Charter's TV offerings.
My family's living room TV has a Tivo with CableCard and tuning adapter, so we still get all the channels there. But I also have a TV tuner card on my desktop computer and an old CRT in the basement in front of my exercise bike. Being able to watch Charter's analog lineup on those TVs was a nice perk that I will miss. I doubt that I'm alone.