Last week at CableTechTalk, Paul Rodriguez published a helpful post on the differences between broadcasters’ transition to digital signals next year and the efforts, by some cable operators, to “transition analog channels onto digital cable tiers.”
Toward the end of the same post, Rodriguez summarized a series of commitments made by the cable operators that have seats on the NCTA Board of Directors, noting that these companies “own and operate cable systems serving ninety percent of the nation’s cable subscribers.”
Suddenlink is one of those cable operators. We and our industry peers made the commitments listed by Rodriguez in order to minimize confusion and help eliminate complicating issues surrounding the broadcasters’ digital transition on Feb. 17.
Dec. 26, 2008: Suddenlink and Gray Television have successfully reached an agreement that covers WSAZ, WTAP, WITN, and KBTX, among others.
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Dec. 24, 2008: Suddenlink officials are currently optimistic that a mutually acceptable agreement will be reached with Gray Television, on behalf of its various TV stations.
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Gray Television is the owner of several TV stations carried on Suddenlink cable systems. The Gray TV stations reaching the most Suddenlink customers include:
WSAZ (NBC) — carried in parts of West Virginia and Kentucky
WTAP (NBC) — carried primarily in Parkersburg, W. Va.
WITN (NBC) — carried in eastern North Carolina
KBTX (CBS) — carried primarily in Bryan/College Station, Texas
All or most of the listed TV stations are either (a) running crawls on the bottom of their screens, and/or (b) posting information on their Web sites, warning that Suddenlink customers may no longer be able to receive these TV stations via cable effective January 1, 2009. We’re not sure why Gray Television and its TV stations have decided to take this step.
Suddenlink sent Gray a proposal on Dec. 8 for a new contract. We have called them regularly since then, requesting an update. Without further notice, Gray TV stations started warning our customers of a perceived problem with the negotiations. This situation simply does not make sense.
Regardless, consistent with our standing pledge to customers, Suddenlink will not voluntarily drop any of the listed TV stations. To the contrary: We are committed to continuing good-faith negotiations with Gray Television and to doing everything we can to reach a mutually acceptable agreement with them by the expiration of our current contract on Dec. 31.
Please feel free to contact Gray, or its TV stations listed below, and encourage them to do the same.
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Roger Sheppard, Vice President and General Manager of WTAP, submitted the following statement on Friday morning, Dec. 19: “WTAP is hopeful that an agreement can be reached with Suddenlink before the Dec. 31, 2008 deadline, to ensure no interruption of service to viewers of WTAP (NBC), FOX Parkersburg and My5.”
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In addition to the phone numbers listed here, you can click on each of the company/station names to visit relevant contact-information Web pages. Thank you.
NOTE: We negotiate with Gray Television and other broadcast-station owners to help hold down the cost to our customers; please reference this page for more information on that topic.
Chris Van Wagenen, business editor at the Lubbock Avalanche Journal, weighs in on the NFL Network, which he claims:
… has acted like a bull in a China shop. It’s (their) way or the highway. That stinks for fans, but eventually, even in this economy, someone higher up ought to get it.
…The NFL needs to get (with) the program. They’re not ESPN and they never will be.
In a year-end television spot, which will run on various cable channels over the next couple of weeks, Suddenlink CEO Jerry Kent extends holiday wishes to the company’s customers, notes Suddenlink’s most-improved status in the recent JD Power survey, and promises that the company will continue efforts to improve through investments in “training, services, and technology.”
Many TV stations across the country will conduct a test this evening, around 6:30 p.m. local time, regardless of time zone. During this test, the participating TV stations will cut off their analog signals and only broadcast their digital signals, in preparation for the permanent cutover to digital broadcasting on February 17, 2009. Tonight’s tests should last approximately five minutes.
The overwhelming majority of Suddenlink cable systems are ready for this test, and we thus expect the majority of our customers will not experience an issue. A few may — but don’t worry: We are on track to have all Suddenlink cable systems ready for the transition in the next several weeks, well before February 17.
Continuing its planned expansion of video-on-demand (VOD) service, Suddenlink announced today that the service will be available later this week in Tyler and nearby Whitehouse, Texas.
Until September this year, VOD was only available from Suddenlink in West Virginia. Then, in mid-September, the company expanded the service to a number of West Texas markets, including Abilene, Amarillo, Lubbock, Midland, San Angelo, Snyder, and Sweetwater. A couple weeks later, VOD was launched in Henderson, Texas, followed by a launch last month in Georgetown, Leander, and Pflugerville, Texas. Last week, the service was extended to Lake Charles and Sulphur, La.
Future launches will be announced as they are confirmed. Please stay tuned.
We’ve added a new link to our blogroll, Cable Tech Talk or CTT — which is “a telecommunications policy and technology news blog presented by the National Cable & Telecommunications Association” or NCTA. (NCTA is Suddenlink’s primary trade group.)
If you’re a telecom policy wonk or tech geek, CTT offers a lot of good material — and even if you’re not one of the wonks or geeks, you still might find a gem or two worth reading there. For instance: this post on why the differences between broadcast TV stations and cable networks matter.
The company also announced this week the introduction of high-definition TV service in Minden, La., and Newport, Ark. — with an initial slate of 22 HD channels in both markets.
Congratulations are in order for Suddenlink’s Patty McCaskill, who made the list of “2009 Wonder Women,” announced today by Multichannel News editors.
Ms. McCaskill and her co-honorees are the 11th such class of women recognized through this program since it was created in 1999. The ’09 class will be profiled in a special report in the Jan. 26, 2009 issue of Multichannel News, and honored at a March 10, 2009 luncheon, co-hosted by Women in Cable Telecommunications (WICT).
As time and resources allow, we attempt to review and publish as many comments as we can, including those with points-of-view contrary to our own. We reserve the right to edit or reject comments to eliminate profanity, personal attacks, off-topic or duplicative remarks, etc. Comments are closed on new posts after one week.
