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Swift boating, alarmist advertising, shock and awe and fear mongering! No this isn’t politics; it’s the cable industry’s latest attempt to add customers through savvy advertising and marketing.
Through perfectly legal come-ons, slightly misleading TV counter-advertising, and some technological hocus pocus, some cable companies are trying to lure customers who don’t need cable TV to reach their favorite local over-the-air stations….and/or have changed some of their marketing and technological processes on a fly to require customers to upgrade to a cable box where they previously didn’t require any set top box.
In addition, an unscheduled upgrade of several cable systems from N.Y. to L.A. has resulted in around-the-block lines at certain cable company locations of customers trying to get new set top boxes that will let them view many of the analog stations that have been moved to a new digital tier.
The movement of these lower band stations (usually local affiliates and local independent TV stations) is not directly related to the digital changeover next February 17. But industry watchdogs claim that cable companies are, in essence, using the government mandated movement of over the air stations to digital bands to pressure unsuspecting and uneducated consumers to get a second cable box for another room or to add a cable box where they only require through the wall coax to receive basic cable stations.
The upgrade (which sources at Time Warner claim was necessary to avoid more technical problems as they changeover to the new Samsung HDTV-HDMI set top boxes now, and allowed Cablevision to centralize some of its northeast and southeast U.S hubs) has resulted in long lines at many urban or heavy-use customer service centers where consumers regularly exchanges set top boxes or go for repairs and or paying bills.
While Time Warner and Cablevision spokespeople deny any shenanigans in their new marketing and technology initiatives, some federal and state regulators tell Electronichouse.com that customer complaints have increased by 20-percent since Labor Day.
New television ads, direct mail and telephone pitches are urging cable customers to upgrade to a set top box. But in the case of Time Warner Cable of New Jersey and Time Warner of New York City, many consumers who were getting channels 2-14 were suddenly cut off from their cable access.
“I received a letter a few weeks ago from Time Warner Cable, saying that my basic cable will require a set top box at a very little cost to me,” said Melody Bachman, from Palisades, New Jersey. “Last Monday I had no television reception at all in my den and bedrooms where I used to use just a coaxial cable directly into my TV.”
Bachman claimed that a call to the Time Warner ‘hot line’ resulted in a mixed message: “The customer service representative said that I would have to now get a cable box to get the local TV affiliates and independent stations and public TV, when I asked whether this had something to do with those TV advertisements pushing the free analog to digital converter boxes, the representative said ‘Yes.’ “However she said that this was cable TV’s solution to the conversion process.”
My last point worht mentioning. Even though my new Tv will scan QAM and get unscrambled cable HDTV with directory information, Comcast makes your life miserbale by not giving you directory information. You can get the channel lineup with and antenna, but if you want it with cable, you will have to follow some sort of pay-for-it plan. That may be a STB, or in my case, a cable card installed in my Tivo. They also will not let me install it myself, I have to pay someone to do what I can do for myself. I blame the FCC for the lack of a law that says they have to pass directory information as it pertains the the unscrambled local channels.
My Comcast cable provider wanted to charge me for two HDTV hookups because my Tivo had two tuners. They used a single card which is called a multistream card and it will service two tuners. I made them refund the second installation charge for the second card because there wasn’t a second card. Then they said thet want to charge me two HD charges because I have two tuners. Isn’t this like going back to when they use to charge for every cable jack in the house. They stopped doing that a long time ago, but now want to resume with it, and I feel is is more of an harrasment, or extortion than anyhting else. It came down to pay us or we will cut one tuner off. I didn’t pay, and they did not cut me off. I think they were new to this and didn’t really know what they could get away with. There is a single TV tied to the Tivo, so no matter how many channels i can record, they are watched one at a time, and in only one room.
Even though technically “analog” broadcasts will cease to exist in February rest assured that cable companies aren’t going to give you anything that you aren’t already paying for. For example if you now have “analog basic” cable then your cable co. will either require you rent a digital box from them (even if your tv is digital) or simply downconvert what is coming through the coax to standard def…even the locals that broadcast primetime HD. Of course cable companies don’t want to acknowledge that QAM tuners exist and will tell customers they still need to sign up for an “HD package” ...even if all they want is the locals (which are broadcast OTA free) in HD and don’t care about the premium HD channels.
The bottom line is that you can rest assured that cable company boardrooms having been buzzing with “profit retention” ideas ever since the federal mandate was made known. If it weren’t for satellite being a competitor, most cable co.‘s wouldn’t even offer a low cost “basic” service.
I’ve been dubious all along about the ads claiming that the “cable company has you covered in the switch to digital.”
It doesn’t surprise me in the least that some companies are now requiring their subscribers to get boxes, and using the switch as a catalyst. I currently use Comcast in Michigan straight from the wall to a HTPC for QAM and locals, I certainly hope it doesn’t change, but I’m not holding my breath.
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Please see here (http://suddenlinkfyi.com/dtv/) for information on how Suddenlink is approaching the digital transition.
And here (http://suddenlinkfyi.com/2008/01/29/hd-fundamentals/) for our approach to HD—noting, in particular, the section on “HD Broadcast,” which reads as follows:
“Where available, these channels can be viewed on an HD television set for no additional cost, if that HD television set has a built-in QAM tuner. Television set manufacturers and/or retailers should be able to verify whether or not an HD set has a built-in QAM tuner. If your TV set does not have a built-in QAM tuner, you will need to lease a Suddenlink HD receiver or cable card to view HD Broadcast channels.”