Dec 16, 2008 11:00 pm US/Eastern
3 On Your Side: Cable Changes
PHILADELPHIA (CBS 3) ―
By now, you've probably heard about the digital TV transition occurring in February. For months, we've been telling you that if have cable, you don't need to do a thing to prepare for the switch. But as 3 On Your Side's Jim Donovan reports, some cable companies are now making changes and it's leaving customers confused.
Comcast customer Karen Robinson has cable TV in her home. Recently she noticed some of her favorite channels like AMC and Oxygen were gone. She called customer service, and was told, "They were going to take these channels away and move them up to higher digital numbers," Karen said.
Off analog and onto digital cable that is.
Karen says she was told that she now needed a digital converter box in order to watch the newly missing channels. So Karen went out and bought one. The only problem, the type sold in stores, are only good if you get your TV signal over the air using an antenna.
These are being sold to consumers who don't want to lose their signal when TV switches to digital in February. Because Karen has cable, that type of converter box is useless to her. She needed to get a digital cable box from Comcast.
"They need to spell it out clearer so everybody understands what is going on," Karen said frustratingly.
So what is happening? Comcast has moved those channels to free up space. For Karen, that means shelling out extra money. Comcast will give her the first box free, but two more for the other sets in her house will each cost $5 a month to rent.
Comcast's Jeff Alexander says the boxes are a technology upgrade but with perks.
"You will have some value added, like on-demand, on-screen guide and parental controls," Alexander says.
A similar situation happened to RCN cable customer Paul Bruton. He has 11 TV's in his home and never had any cable boxes, until recently.
"A month and a half ago, they switched everything over to digital channels so now what you need is a converter box for each TV you have," Paul said.
RCN is making this switch to digital cable, mandatory for all its customers. Like Comcast, RCN offers the first box for free, but each additional one will cost $2.95 a month to rent.
"We picked up six converter boxes," Paul said.
On his other sets, he just sees snow.
"It's very frustrating. They made a change and I have to change my equipment to keep up with them," Paul added.
Consumers Union, the publishers of Consumer Reports, thinks some cable companies are using the confusion about the upcoming switch to digital, as a chance to boost cable bills. They even wrote a letter to the Federal Communications Commission about this, and because of that letter, "The FCC has asked a lot of cable companies for what they are doing, how they are doing it," said Commissioner Robert McDowell with the FCC.
So what can you do? Talk to your cable company about a lower monthly fee for set-top boxes.
Remember, digital broadcasting is different than digital cable. If a cable company tells you the channel changes are due to the DTV conversion in February, call the attorney general's office on your state. They're not.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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