Hey Greg, can we move a few analog channels to Digital?

[jaymer]

Greg, please give me a good reason why this cannot be done.

How about putting UPN and WB up in the Digital Tier as well.
I compared the FOX Baseball game over the weekend on both channel 14 and 614 and it was night and day, even though both were not widescreen and were still fuzzy.

Its just a shame people have to watch this programming in the crappy analog tier. I NEVER watch cable for Enterprise, Jake, Everwood, Angel, Smallville because I tune in OTA.
Doesn't that make you lose revenue because you can't sell me localized commericials or something?
There's gotta be a good reason why this can't be done.

thx
jaymer...

[Max_Gator]

No doubt. I watch everything on those channels.

I just presumed that those channels are being upconverted in some way.

Of course, they didn't look as good as watching my Gators in HD on CBS!! :lol:

[gmclaughlin]

I'll have to give this one some thought.

[Hop]

I never watch analog channels through the cable box. They look terrible! I view analog directly from the cable into the TV. I only watch digital channels through the box.

[LonghornXP]

I asked the same question to several CSRs and marketing people and they all gave me pretty much no reason but I'm sorry. But this area does this to a certain extent but not fully for locals but with everything else so if they can do it why can't you and just do it for 8 extra channels.

Here is a PDF channel line-up below

http://198.170.249.61/files_pdf/BHCHANNELBK.pdf

[TripleSticks]

It would seem to be Marketing / Economics 101.

If people have the option of watching a digital broadcast (OTA) or an analog broadcast (cable), most on this forum would agree they would watch the digital broadcast (I did). This implies BHN is losing viewers which would seem to negatively impact BHN's advertisers bang for the buck.

It seems logical to me that if BHN can't get these stations (UPN, WB, NBC, etc.) signed to an HD contract, they would at least offer their digital broadcast in the digital tier, thereby avoiding losing viewers.

Of course I don't understand contractually how the agreements with these stations are written, but it seems to make good economic sense for BHN to offer them in the digital tier, until they can offer them in full HD.

Just my humble opinion.

[gmclaughlin]

I'm still looking at this one, but here are some of the complexities:

1) The analog channels are provided to us as (imagine that) analog channels. We'd have to spend some large amount of money (but possible) to purchase MPEG encoding equipment to digitize the channels, probably multiple times for each digital headend. And it would have to be real-time encoding, not "post-production", because we get it on the fly. What could that Capital be better spent on? More router capacity for Road Runner? Upgrades to the VOD path to allow HD VOD? HD-DVR's for lease? Business is all about limited resources and tradeoffs.

2) While our bandwidth is more robust than satellite, it's still finite. If I duplicate several analog channels in Digital, is it worth an HD station I can't add? Is it worth not adding new digital networks that are debuting every day that would provide more choices to watch?

3) Most retransmission agreements would have to be renegotiated, as "manipulating" the signal is forbidden. And every time you open that renegotiation door, everything is back on the table.

4) How do I decide which ones get duplicate carriage? Just the four majors? UPN and WB as well? PBS? What happens when the Independents start screaming to the FCC for equal treatment? (Some pigs are more equal than others...). What happens when the local government entity decides (through local ordinance) they want Hillsborough County Television and "White Chocolate" (or whatever his name is) duplicated in digital? I fear this one spreads like a California campfire...

5) How does this affect the digital retransmission issue? If a station has a digital SD signal (but no HD) that's merely a simulcast of their analog feed, and we don't carry it, why would they let us digitize their analog? If the station was holding out demands for digital retransmission, why would they agree to an digitized analog?

BTW, these are strictly my personal thoughts, and in no way represent any policy or opinion of the Company. Given all these "complexities", I do know that this is happening in a few areas of the country, but nowhere in which the HD offering is as developed as Orlando (and yes, even Tampa -- here come the flames).

[LonghornXP]

Well than how come satellite has locals in digital. So that would mean two things. If they can encode on the fly the same analog signals seperately to well over 100 different markets and still have a cheaper bill than BHN in Tampa than why can't BHN in Tampa do it for one market. The other option would be that DirecTV is getting them in digital and not analog and than my question is why doesn't BHN yell at the FCC or whoever and say why does DirecTV get greater treatment than our cable company who has offered locals in this area far longer than DirecTV. This street can go two ways and its time for BHN to stand up for their customers or at least in the Tampa area. I don't know about Central Florida but it looks to me like they do care about their customers when you look at their local HD line-up.

Just some food for thought. If DirecTV can do it than why can't you. Is it they have hardware that they use to do it. Well if they do you can afford it because their bills are still cheaper. Or are they getting all of their channels in digital or encoded from the start and if so than I would think that BHN would say why are they getting extra treatment than us.

[bdraw]

Well than how come satellite has locals in digital. So that would mean two things. If they can encode on the fly the same analog signals seperately to well over 100 different markets and still have a cheaper bill than BHN in Tampa than why can't BHN in Tampa do it for one market. The other option would be that DirecTV is getting them in digital and not analog and than my question is why doesn't BHN yell at the FCC or whoever and say why does DirecTV get greater treatment than our cable company who has offered locals in this area far longer than DirecTV. This street can go two ways and its time for BHN to stand up for their customers or at least in the Tampa area. I don't know about Central Florida but it looks to me like they do care about their customers when you look at their local HD line-up.

Just some food for thought. If DirecTV can do it than why can't you. Is it they have hardware that they use to do it. Well if they do you can afford it because their bills are still cheaper. Or are they getting all of their channels in digital or encoded from the start and if so than I would think that BHN would say why are they getting extra treatment than us.

D* has no choice, they only do digital.
It is either to carry digital or not to carry them at all.

It would be nice to have any analoge channels but I would rather have HD channels.

My only problem with BHN Tampa is that we don't have the same lineup as Orlando.
It just doesn't seem fair.
I would like to have ESPNHD but I blame ESPN for that not BHN.

[FUZZIZ]

ANOTHER FACTOR IS THAT THERE A LOT OF PEOPLE WHO LIVE IN APARTMENTS, CONDO'S AND SOME TYPE OF HOME OWNERS ASSOC. THAT PAYS FOR EITHER A BASIC OR STANDARD PACKAGE WHICH IS INCLUDED IN THEIR RENT/LEASE AGREEMENT. THEREFORE, IF ONE WAS TO MOVE THOSE ANALOG CH'S TO THE DIGITAL TIER LINE UP, THOSE PEOPLE WOULD BE LOSING OUT ON THAT SERVICE. AND MORE THAN LIKLY THERE ARE A LOT MORE PEOPLE WHO STILL ONLY HAVE STANDARD ANALOG TV'S W/ ONLY STANDARD SERVICE VS. THE PEOPLE HAVE DIGITAL CONVERTERS, WHO WOULD MISS OUT AS WELL.

BUT THIS IS ONLY AN "ASSUMTION", IMHO

[FUZZIZ]

OPPPP......SORRY FOR CAPS!!!!! :o

[CANDY76MAN]

ANOTHER FACTOR IS THAT THERE A LOT OF PEOPLE WHO LIVE IN APARTMENTS, CONDO'S AND SOME TYPE OF HOME OWNERS ASSOC. THAT PAYS FOR EITHER A BASIC OR STANDARD PACKAGE WHICH IS INCLUDED IN THEIR RENT/LEASE AGREEMENT. THEREFORE, IF ONE WAS TO MOVE THOSE ANALOG CH'S TO THE DIGITAL TIER LINE UP, THOSE PEOPLE WOULD BE LOSING OUT ON THAT SERVICE. AND MORE THAN LIKLY THERE ARE A LOT MORE PEOPLE WHO STILL ONLY HAVE STANDARD ANALOG TV'S W/ ONLY STANDARD SERVICE VS. THE PEOPLE HAVE DIGITAL CONVERTERS, WHO WOULD MISS OUT AS WELL.

BUT THIS IS ONLY AN "ASSUMTION", IMHO


The solution is to do both...leave the analog lineup the way it is and for the people that pay extra for the digital tier, they get the analog channels converted to digital as well so we get the picture quality were supposedly paying extra for by going "digital"

some of the low number channels on bhn look horrible these days.

[LonghornXP]

I'm not sure is this was said anywhere else on these boards but I can't find it. But here goes I was reading about I think either Pace Micro or Motorola that would be coming out with a cheap device that would allow cable companies to go all digital and allow basic subs without a box to get those stations in digital. Mainly it decodes the signal without the customer having to buy a box. It would be very cheap for the customer to buy and/or cable company to provide or for a TV set to have this type of technology built into it.

Also I called both CBS and Fox and asked them if they provide their analog signal to BHN and DirecTV differently and they told me that get it the same way but DirecTV sends it differently than BHN but they both said that BHN could send it the same way they do Tech TV and such channels. They just encode it on the fly like they did with the Disney channel on channel 68 and 104 before.

This device is quite cool and I would hope that most if not all cable companies would deploy this for their own benefit as well as customers.

Here is the Pace press release.

http://www.pacemicro.com/pressroom/newspopup.asp?section=release&id=10025

Its a very good read and one very interesting thing about this device is that it will allow customers to watch one live show and record another channel to a VCR and/or DVD recorder. Very nice indeed I would say.

[gmclaughlin]

To the best of my knowledge, the Pace DCA is still "vaporware", a "concept car" for the cable industry.