Scott Geston, Fargo, letter: Cable One critic did not tell the full story

[cablewithaview]

In response to the Tuesday editorial written by Brad Paulson, “Cable ONE pulls fast one”:

TNT high definition was pulled from Cable One’s line-up but not by Cable One’s choice. This is hardly a “fast one” as Paulson implies. In fact, we gave customers a 30-day notice this may happen.

At issue is a dramatic price hike Turner Networks is asking for Court TV. Court TV is demanding a rate increase of nearly 300 percent, which would make the network twice as expensive as any of the other standard digital cable channels.

Unfortunately, since we did not come to an agreement over Court TV, Turner network will not allow us to continue carriage of TNT high definition. We apologize to our customers that have been inconvenienced by Turner’s decisions.

TNT HD will be replaced with ESPN 2 HD on April 5, a highly requested network. In addition, Cable ONE will be offering an optional package of five new additional HD channels very soon. The five new HD channels are: Discovery HD Theatre, A&E, TV Food, HGTV and National Geographic. With these new offerings, Cable ONE has a total of 16 HD channels available.

Our customers consistently tell us price is the most important issue to them. Cable ONE did not take a video rate increase this year and is working hard to stabilize customers’ bills. If we agree to Turner’s terms, we would be forced to raise customer rates.

Cable ONE is committed to bringing Fargo the most advanced services, including high-definition programming, at a reasonable price.


http://www.in-forum.com/articles/ind...448000d3b7e503