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Charter will not restrict access channels

JANESVILLE — Local cable TV watchers will get to watch public-access channels no matter what kind of TVs they own, according to Charter Communications.

Charter stirred up protests from the public-access channels—including Janesville's JATV Channel 12—in July when it announced it would move those channels to a tier where only digital TV sets could receive them.

Charter now says it has found an engineering solution that will allow both analog and digital TVs to receive the public-access channels.

The original plan would have required customers to have certain kinds of digital TVs or a Charter converter box to view the public-access channels. Those channels are moving to the digital portion of Charter's lineup. A box costs $5 a month.

Starting Tuesday, Charter says it will offer local public-access channels on its digital tier, between channel 979 and 999. However, Charter also will continue with JATV and the Janesville School District station on channels 12 and 13, where they are now, said Charter spokesman Tim Vowell.

Only analog TVs will see channels 12 and 13, while only digital TVs will receive the digital telecasts, Vowell said.

Then, on Sept. 30, the local channels will move to another part of the analog tier, between 95 and 99, so they'll continue to be available to both digital and analog TVs.

JATV station manager Judi Kneece was pleased, although she said the plan isn't ideal.

"The biggest issue for me was that our viewers were going to be compromised, and half of them wouldn't have access to us unless they spent more money, and we didn't think that was fair to them right now," Kneece said.

"In the best scheme of things, it would be great to leave us where we are. However, they were listening to their customers and the PEG (Public, Educational and Government) channels in keeping them on a tier that everybody would have access to without the digital equipment, and that's important," Kneece said.

Charter said it is making the changes to make room for more high-definition channels.

Charter points out that the new, digital "Public Affairs Neighborhood" channels will be very close in the lineup to TV stations that cover local news. The "neighborhood" will include Wisconsin Eye—which is already at 995—and the C-SPAN channels.

Charter planned to announce changes in a mailing to customers this week. Changes will include the addition of five new, high-definition, or HD, channels next month.

"We believe delivering more HD channels to our customers is the right thing to do and properly responds to the many requests we receive from our customers," Charter said in the news release. "We have also designed a plan that accommodates the needs of our non-digital customers, in helping them ‘bridge the digital gap' relating to the viewing of PEG channels, before incorporating digital TV technology into their home."

CHARTER CHANGES

Charter Communications plans these changes to its channel lineup:

Tuesday—A "Public Affairs Neighborhood" that will include local public-access channels as well as C-SPAN2, C-SPAN3 and Wisconsin Eye will become available on channels 979 through 998. These channels will be available only to customers whose TVs can handle Charter's digital signal or who rent a digital converter from Charter. This service will, for the first time, include public-access channels from neighboring communities. At the same time, for analog customers only, the local public-access channels will stay right where they are. In Janesville, that's channels 12 and 13.

Sept. 30—The public-access channels for analog TVs will move to channels 95-99.

Early October—Five new high-definition channels will be added. They are TBS-HD, Animal Planet-HD, Smithsonian Channel-HD, In-Demand-HD and The Movie Channel-HD.