Comcast's Valentines Gift to me - NO MORE TCM

electrictroy

Grrrr. Wednesday night while I was in the middle of watching the 8 o'clock movie, the cable channel Turner Classic Movies just suddenly went off the air. So too did a few other channels disappear.

Today I got a piece of mail telling me that if I want these extra channels I have to pay more money to get "extended basic".

Gee. Thanks.

That was a nice Valentine's Day gift to the people of Lancaster Pennsylvania. Just yank my favorite channel TCM off the air without any notice whatsoever. And then demand I pay-up more money. (Don't know the exact amount but likely $10 more per month to get extended basic.) My neighbor was so incensed, he actually DROVE into the office to complain.

Not that Comcast cares.
They are a monopoly.
They can do whatever they want.

Greedy bastards. They took away a channel that has been a "basic" channel for as long as I can remember, and now they suddenly expect me to pay ~$10 more per month to get it. Greedy.

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TV Band/whitespace Devices will block my Baltimore/Philly stations. No more channels 2,3,6,10,11,12,13,17,35,45,57,61,65

chad473

it's to make room for more HD, which we've been sorely lacking in this area. 8 new HD channels are being added in the next few days. more channels are likely to be moved off analog before the year is over.

oblioman

get ready for more of the same,,as analog is slowly phased out, and demand for more HD rises.

Chris Gerhard

Good grief, I have Comcast here in Little Rock and TCM is my favorite SD channel. I have wondered how that channel is provided in a basic package, it is just so good and most cost a lot to provide. Almost all movies are in the correct aspect ratio. Now the same channel in HD would be amazing, but until then I sure hope that I don't get the same offer here.

Chris

Loves2Watch

Where I come from, they call that extortion...

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ComcastGuy

They have been running a scroll on TCM for weeks now telling customers that it was changing. Not only that, it was mailed out. They will (um, should) give you a digital starter box free for a year
($2 normally if I remember correctly) and you can see TCM on the same channel.

electrictroy

I have not seen any scroll, and I've been watching quite a bit (it's Oscar month).

They did send out a letter.

It arrived the day *after* the channel was yanked!

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TV Band/whitespace Devices will block my Baltimore/Philly stations. No more channels 2,3,6,10,11,12,13,17,35,45,57,61,65

electrictroy

There's a story about it in the Lancaster paper. Apparently Comcast violated some FCC rule by not informing customers 3 months in advance of adding or dropping channels.

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TV Band/whitespace Devices will block my Baltimore/Philly stations. No more channels 2,3,6,10,11,12,13,17,35,45,57,61,65

joekewl1971

Are you talking about TCM as analog cable that you can get without a box? You were very lucky indeed. Be thankful it lasted as long as it did. Don't recall when I got cable. Seems like around 3 years I have had it. TCM has always been in the digital lineup here in Seattle. 501 I think. Can't expect no commercials for hardly any money. Universal HD now has commercials in thier movies. AMC, and Bravo used to have no commercial interruption. Lucky TCM exists at all.

oblioman

Me remembers a day when we purchased cable services because it had no commercials. Things have certainly turned for the worse.

electrictroy

A couple people have said this to me, and I don't understand it. I've *always* had TCM as part of the basic analog package:

State College - TCM? Yes.
Baltimore - TCM? Yes.
Charlotte NC - TCM? Yes.

Binghamton NY - Yes.
Grand Rapids MI - Yes.
Oklahoma City - Yes.
Fredericksburg VA - Yes.

I've never been to any town or city where TCM was not available as part of the basic 60-70 channel lineup. I think if you do not have it, then you're in the minority, since every cable system I've ever used had TCM included.

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TV Band/whitespace Devices will block my Baltimore/Philly stations. No more channels 2,3,6,10,11,12,13,17,35,45,57,61,65

Chris Gerhard

Apparently you just joined the minority as well so my guess is that the minority is growing and will soon be the majority. If Comcast is dropping TCM from their basic analog cable package, expect most of the other cable companies to do the same.

Chris

mactiques

I live between Altoona and Johnstown PA. TCM has been in the digital package since i started service over five years ago. In St College where i work, it was taken off the comcast line up. It's still on basic in the Altoona cable system, Atlantic broadband.

My gripe with comcast is that hi def is not available in my area and there are no plan to do so in the near future, at least not that anyone from comcast can tell me.
When i told them that i was debating how much to spend on an antenna, depending on how long the wait would be, a month or next year, I was told the the 2009 deadline had nothing to do with cable and chances are we won't have hi def cable by that time.
Are there any regulations on the cable companies to upgrade there services?

deadhead68

No.

DeadHead68

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flyinfred

1 year for free. That is what I call bait& switch, since I still plan to be around in a year.