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Channel Siberia
Looking for your local town government meeting on Charter Cable? Missouri residents may have to send out a search party to find their local public, educational, and government (PEG) channels, because Charter has moved them way, way up the dial for some of their subscribers.
A Lewis & Clark-like expedition by Washington, Missouri councilman Guy Midkiff found his — in the channel 900s range:
PEG programing has been given the heave-ho to stratospheric 900 plus channel, closet. Apparently if your TV is more than 4 years old, you can’t even get the PEG channels without a $5 per month additional fee and a converter box.
What happened to them? Seems the state of Missouri took over the regulation of cable franchises back in 2007. What that meant was that local communities – like Washington, lost all leverage to demand cable hold up the long standing bargain of making PEG programing available on the low channels. This was part of the original basic package of programing.
If memory serves, 900 channels used to be the domain of online shoppers. How coincidental that these shopping channels are showing up in the old real estate that was once reserved for PEG. I am sure the fact that cable companies get a piece of the pie from shopping channel sales, has nothing to do with the change of addresses.
Midkiff
It’s another intended consequence of AT&T’s statewide video franchising bill, just one of many making their way across the state legislatures where AT&T provides service. By removing local oversight of video franchising, the power to ensure residents access to local public, educational, and government programming is lost. Only the benevolence of the pay television provider keeps it on the dial at all, and when shopping channels show providers the green stuff for an envied lower channel position, it’s a safe bet PEG channels will receive the industry equivalent of an eviction notice.
Cable channel real estate has good and bad neighborhoods. The lower the channel number you secure, the more prestigious the address. That’s because most viewers who start channel flipping start from the bottom and work their way up. Most land on a channel below 40. Channels 41-60, which used to be the cable ghetto, are now firmly in the “affordable housing” realm. For those unlucky enough to find themselves above channel 60, the cable industry has a term for that landscape — Channel Siberia.
Under those circumstances, you can image how many viewers are brave enough to make the trek all the way to channels 900 and up.
Other stories of interest:
- Pointless Digital Channel Padding By Cablevision – Will This Be the Industry’s Next Excuse For Rate Increases?
- Comcast’s March to Digital – The Case of the Missing Channels… Solved
- Money Talks: When Basic Cable Profits Are Down, “Digital Economy Packages” from Comcast Turn Up
- Time Warner Cable Wants You To Help Fight “Unfair” Programming Prices, But Won’t Let You Choose Your Own Channels
- TV Everywhere Not Even Free to Cable Subscribers?
In the infinite wisdom of the Texas legislature, they crafted a statewide franchise that preserved PEG programming, but they forgot one small detail…..FUNDING! Now here in Austin we’re facing the expiration of our local franchise agreement and along with it the funding to put anything on those PEG channels.
Welcome to the corporate world … anything for a buck.
Simply stated, the Charter plan is:
- Making the cash register ring is the top priority
- Public service and education isn’t even on the priority list.