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Thursday, May 11, 2006
Time Warner moves National Geographic Channel
If you settled down to watch “The Dog Whisperer” on the National Geographic Channel recently, you may have been surprised — and miffed — to find a blank screen.
That’s because Time Warner Cable bumped National Geographic Channel off its standard analog service and moved it up to digital-only service. You want “The Dog Whisperer?” You’ve got to get digital cable. Period.
This channel jiggle has not set well with a number of cable subscribers.
“Why did you take the best TV channel off the air in Austin?” wrote one not-so-happy viewer. “I am so disappointed and can’t really afford to upgrade to digital right now. Please put it back on the air and tell me why you did this.”
Time-Warner spokesman Roger Heaney responds:
“By moving the network (NGC), it has allowed us to maintain competitive pricing for our standard packaging. Moving this channel is not because we want to ‘up’ people to digital, although we believe that by paying a little more for digital they’re getting so much more in terms of programming and services.”
Hogwash, says Russell A. Howard, vice president of communications for NGC. By moving NGC from standard service to digital channel 232, the channel plummeted from 260,000 local subscribers to 110,000 subscribers.
“Time Warner Cable used to deliver NGC to nearly every home in Austin as part of its basic service, but recently decided to move NGC to digital so that almost 60 percent of the homes in Austin that previously received NGC no longer do. We have been getting e-mails from viewers in Austin who are upset and confused as to why this happened.
“Many people have asked us to put the network back where it was; others asked whose decision it was to move in the first place. Some e-mails even stated that Time Warner informed them that we requested the move, which is blatantly untrue. In fact, we strenuously objected.
“And, just for the record, we have not increased our costs to Time Warner. We would like to set the record straight and clear up any confusion. It was entirely Time Warner’s decision to move NGC to their digital service. It’s a completely reversible decision, and we hope they will reconsider and once again make the National Geographic Channel widely available to the people of Austin.”
The chance of Time Warner reversing its decision is slim to none. The company has been trying to ooch more and more of its customer base away from analog and up to digital. I won’t be a bit surprised to see other channels shifting to the digital tier in the future.
Analog subscribers, who remain the majority of Time Warner’s subscribers in Central Texas, are further irritated by the blank screen on Cable Channel 51, where NGC used to be. The cable company’s spokesman says there are no “immediate plans” to replace NGC on Channel 51 with something else.
“I would like to voice my strongest displeasure to you for this move,” wrote another angry e-mailer. “The channel (NGC) was probably my favorite channel to watch, so I really would like to know who to be mad at.”
Well, that would be Time Warner and the entire cable industry, which is determined to push all of us, whether we want to go or not, into a digital-only world … which, of course, costs more than the old world. It’s called “progress,” folks, and we can’t avoid it.
By the way, the customer e-mails repeated in this blog were provided by NGC, not Time Warner. The newspaper also has received phone calls and written questions about the move.
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