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Comcast digital expanding: Some customers will need free box to adapt TVs.Apr 13, 2010 (The Pueblo Chieftain - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- Some Comcast customers who connect their cables directly to their televisions won't be getting as many stations today as they did Monday, unless they've taken the cable company up on its offer to provide digital adapters. While the broadcast industry's conversion from analog to digital did not affect cable and satellite customers, Comcast's own plan for digital migration will mean that a number of channels that had flowed directly over the cable will now have to run through another device if customers want to see them. The change will have no effect on people who subscribe to the lowest-cost basic cable lineup or those who just use TVs that are already connected to Comcast tuner boxes, the ones that customers rent in order to get digital and premium movie channels. Those who will be affected are the small percentage who buy the "expanded basic" without renting a digital tuner and those who get the higher-priced lineups but split their cables to feed televisions directly, without the tuner boxes, settling for a smaller number of channels on those sets. Cindy Parsons, Comcast vice president for public relations, said that the company will provide devices, called digital transport adapters, free to affected customers. Those who buy only expanded basic can get three and people who rent digital tuners can get two to serve those extra sets they have around the house. What's behind the move is Comcast's drive to free up bandwidth. Analog signals use a lot more space than digital ones. So by compressing those channels, she said, the company will be able to offer more high-definition channels, ethnic programming and on-demand shows, important factors in its ongoing battle with satellite competitors. It also will mean higher Internet speeds, Parsons added. Today's moves to digital include American Movie Classics, Country Music Television, C-SPAN2, Great American Country, Oxygen, KWGN and KUSA. In addition, Comcast will be dropping KMGH, the Denver ABC affiliate. To order the adapters, customers can go to the "digitalnow" Web site or call 1-877-634-4434. ON THE NET Digital migration help: www.comcast.com/digitalnow To see more of The Pueblo Chieftain, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.chieftain.com. Copyright (c) 2010, The Pueblo Chieftain, Colo. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. For reprints, email [email protected], call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA. |