Many Bay Area Comcast customers will soon need set-top boxes

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: "Glenn S. Tenney" <tenney () think org>
Date: February 6, 2009 7:43:08 PM EST
To: David Farber <dave () farber net>
Subject: Many Bay Area Comcast customers will soon need set-top boxes

(for IP if you wish)

Back when the switch from analog-to-digital broadcast TV was being  
negotiated, the Cable TV trade association promised that the Cable  
Companies would maintain analog for their cable customers for three  
years after broadcast TV went digital.  Of course, the devil was in  
the details of the fine print and, evidently not well understood by  
Congress -- the Cable Companies weren't going to let people keep  
watching their same old analog channels using their old analog sets  
except for the most basic cable channels.  Instead, the Cable  
Companies were planning on using the switch of broadcast TV to digital  
to force their customers to switch to one-set-top-box per TV or  
recorder (remembering, of course, that these set-top-boxes are NOT the  
same as the digital-to-analog converters being subsidized by Congress  
and which won't help at all with Cable TV).

Glenn Tenney CISSP CISM



http://www.mercurynews.com/breakingnews/ci_11594570

Many Bay Area Comcast customers will soon need set-top boxes
By Troy Wolverton
Mercury News
Posted: 01/30/2009 06:44:16 PM PST

Many Comcast customers who receive analog cable will soon have to get  
a set-top box to keep watching most channels.

The company is upgrading its system in the Bay Area, moving 47 basic  
channels that it now delivers via analog signals to digital  
transmissions.

The changes will begin about March 9 in Pleasanton and Santa Clara and  
continue a week later in San Mateo, San Carlos, San Rafael and other  
cities. The company, which has started telling affected customers, has  
not said when it will make the upgrade in San Jose. But it plans to  
complete the Bay Area revamp by the end of the year.

Digital signals require less bandwidth than analog ones, said Andrew  
Johnson, a Comcast spokesman. The change will free up space to offer  
all customers more high-definition channels and faster Internet  
connections.

"We can give customers more of the services they are wanting," he said.
For now, Comcast won't charge customers extra for the digital  
channels, Johnson said. And it plans to hand out up to three set-top  
boxes per subscriber for no extra charge.

The upgrade will allow Comcast to offer on-demand programs, some of  
which it charges extra for, to customers who previously couldn't get  
them, Johnson said. Also, to offer customers higher  and more  
expensive  packages of channels, Comcast needs them to be digital  
subscribers first.

Bill Nusbaum, a senior telecommunications attorney at The Utility  
Reform Network, a nonprofit utility industry watchdog group, worries  
that Comcast will use the switch to digital transmissions as an excuse  
to raise cable rates.

"They can say all they want about (not charging for the upgrade), but  
the point of fact is that they've been increasing their rates every  
year," he said.

The upgrade affects customers who subscribe to Comcast's analog  
expanded basic cable service, which offers channels from 2 to 82.  
About 20 to 25 percent of Comcast's customers in the Bay Area - or  
about 340,000 to 425,000 subscribers - get that level of service,  
Johnson said.

As part of the upgrade, Comcast will move channels 35 to 82 to digital  
transmissions. In order to view those channels, customers will need to  
have either a digital-ready set-top box from the company or a device  
or television that can accept a cable card.

The company is essentially upgrading its analog expanded basic  
customers to its entry-level digital service, Johnson said. The  
digital package costs on average about $1 more than the analog  
service, and that price difference will continue even though both sets  
of customers will soon be getting the same service.

At no additional charge, Comcast will give each affected customer one  
advanced set-top box that can receive on-demand programs and up to two  
regular boxes that don't have that ability. The company expects that  
to satisfy most customers, who on average have 2.8 televisions.

Customers who want an additional advanced set-top box will be charged  
$6.99 a month. Those who want additional regular boxes will pay $1.99  
a month for each box.

In order to receive the boxes, subscribers will need to contact  
Comcast. The company has set up a special Web site and phone number  
for those requests. Subscribers can put in their set-top box requests  
at any time, even if the company hasn't yet said when it plans to  
upgrade its lines in their city.

The upgrade will not affect subscribers to Comcast's lowest tier  
service, which delivers only local television stations. The company  
will continue to deliver those as analog transmissions, even though  
most of those channels will soon be available only in digital over the  
air.
...




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