Archive for February, 2009

First-Term SOTU: Clinton Still Tops

Preliminary Nielsen figures indicate President Obama drew a massive audience — 52 million plus — for his first State of the Union address Tuesday night. But even that mark was not enough to topple Bill Clinton, whose equivalent presentation 16 years ago drew nearly 67 million viewers.

We’re not judging — only sharing.

02/26/09 at 3:21 pm

‘Retrans’ Debate Surfaces in Satellite Act Renewal

As Congress considers updates to legislation governing satellite TV — cable TV’s chief competitor — there is ample debate over the subject of “retransmission consent” or “retrans,” a legal artifact that allows broadcast TV stations to charge for their signals, even though they already receive a taxpayer subsidy in the form of free spectrum granted to them by the federal government.

If the retrans rules are altered for satellite, they will hopefully be altered for cable, as well — and that could benefit Suddenlink customers, among others.

02/25/09 at 5:36 pm 3 comments

Quality Tube Time

Multichannel News offers a list of new shows hitting cable networks, starting this week through May.

02/24/09 at 5:09 pm

DTV Transition News

Here’s yet another reason to consider cable to deal with the in-progress DTV transition.

02/24/09 at 5:03 pm

Very Cool: Caller ID on Your TV

Ever have this happen to you?

You’re settled in for the evening, watching your favorite TV show. The phone rings. You reach for the handset, but then realize you left it in its cradle in the other room. So you get up and run to the phone, check your caller ID, and discover it’s someone you just don’t want to talk to, at the moment.

It’s one of life’s minor frustrations that many of Suddenlink’s North Carolina customers will never have to endure again. Now, they’ll see a caller ID box pop up at the bottom of their TV screen, allowing them to make the decision then and there, if they want to answer the call … or not.

For the service to work, customers must subscribe to Suddenlink digital TV and phone. If they do, TV Caller ID is available at no additional charge.

The company is actively considering expansion of TV Caller ID to other areas.

Suddenlink is using Integra5’s Converged Services Platform (i5 CSP) to offer the new service. The i5 CSP helps video providers, video programmers, and wireless operators deliver next-generation communications and social media experiences to multiple consumer devices.

02/20/09 at 1:31 pm 10 comments

DTV Wave One, Done

A handful of minor glitches were promptly resolved and the first major wave of TV stations converting to digital-only broadcasts went smoothly last night, as predicted, for the nation’s cable companies and their customers, Suddenlink included.

We’ll continue to monitor to ensure a stable environment moving forward, but last night’s experience should increase everyone’s confidence in the remainder of the transition through June 12.

And of course, for non-cable customers who lost channels last night, Suddenlink would love to be your solution. Visit our main Web site and enter your zip code for informaton on how to reach Suddenlink reps who can help.

02/18/09 at 10:37 am 1 comment

Suddenlink News Round Up

Suddenlink will host the C-SPAN “Civics Bus” when it visits eastern North Carolina later this week.

Farther west, the company will host a fishing tournament in early March to benefit the Internet safety program of the San Angelo, Texas, Independent School District.

02/16/09 at 1:53 pm

From Missouri to Arkansas, with Praise

A Suddenlink employee from Aurora, Mo., recently joined colleagues in northern Arkansas to help with winter-storm recovery. He was duly impressed with what he encountered.

02/16/09 at 1:41 pm

First Wave of DTV Cutovers Approaching

Although TV stations are not required to move to all-digital broadcasts until June 12, 300 to 400 of them across the country are expected to make the move by Tuesday night, Feb. 17 or early morning Wednesday, Feb. 18.

Suddenlink has completed all of the necessary steps to ready its cable systems for this change. We fully expect the transition to be seamless in the overhwelming majority of cases, if not all of them. Any random issues that do occur will likely be the result of TV station technical issues — e.g., the strength of stations’ final digital signals. To help promptly address any such issues, Suddenlink engineers will be diligently monitoring the situation, around the clock, and coordinating closely with TV station engineers.

02/13/09 at 1:25 pm 1 comment

Power Outages in Appalachia

UPDATE: Progress is being made in at least some of the impacted areas. Meanwhile, Suddenlink crews are working diligently to help make sure our services are available to customers as soon as possible after commercial power is restored by the electric companies’ crews.

———————-

Severe thunderstorms have knocked out power for an estimated 130,000-plus homes in West Virginia, Ohio, and Kentucky.

In West Virginia

Gov. Joe Manchin has authorized the use of National Guard troops to help clean up from severe thunderstorms that knocked out power to thousands, caused widespread damage and killed at least one person.

Suddenlink’s Atlantic Region team shares the following:

    Appalachian Power is reporting 45,722 customers out in West Virginia. Hardest hit counties are Cabell, Kanawha, Lincoln and Wayne.

    Allegheny Power is reporting 38,000 out in West Virginia, with over 8,400 out in Wood County (Parkersburg).

    AEP Ohio has 47,531 out.

    Kentucky Power has 36,797 out. Hardest hit is Pike County and over half of Martin County (Inez) is out. About one third of Floyd and Johnson Counties are out.

More on this story as it develops.

02/13/09 at 10:50 am 1 comment

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