Rogers to stop selling Analog Tiers in Digital Ready Areas

[57]

Hugh's excellent post above discusses a possible scenario under conditions TODAY, however, the situation will be somewhat different in a few years when this switch from analogue will likely happen.

I believe that there was a "benchmark" of 85% of customers digital at which time the service provider will be allowed by CRTC to switch to all digital....

[mr weather]

And let me guess: when that happens the $2.99 digital services fee will quietly get buried in the monthly fee for cable services.

What a scam.

If Rogers really wanted to promote digital cable they should drop this stupid fee.

I'm looking forward to the day I can cancel my sub altogether. If it weren't for Treehouse TV it would be gone in a heartbeat.

[edvale]

A truck roll is indeed environmentally unfriendly. But so is the consumption of raw materials, and energy - to produce, operate, and recycle - unnecessary STBs that (for the most part) will be connected to TVs that already have the built-in capability to tune digital CATV channels.

[hugh]

If Rogers really wanted to promote digital cable they should drop this stupid fee.

IMO, the digital service fee and the system access fees are unethical and annoy the heck out of me. It's false advertising to say something is this amount a month guaranteed and then have a secondary fee, that isn't advertised, that can be jacked up on a whim.

Anyway here is a list of stations (from my part of Toronto) that will move from analog to digital

• A&E
• American Movie Classics
• BBC World News
• BET (Black Entertainment Television)
• BNN (Business News Network)
• Bravo! NewStyleArtsChannel
• CMT Canada (Country Music Television)
• CNN (Cable News Network)
• Discovery Channel
• Family Channel (East)
• Food Network
• HGTV Canada (Home & Garden Television)
• History Television
• MTV
• MuchMoreMusic
• MuchMusic
• Outdoor Life Network (OLN)
• Peachtree TV
• Showcase (East)
• Slice
• SPACE: The Imagination Station
• Spike TV
• Telelatino (TLN - East)
• Teletoon (East)
• The Comedy Network (East)
• The Score
• TLC (The Learning Channel)
• TSN (The Sports Network)
• Turner Classic Movies
• TVtropolis (East)
• Your World This Week (Promotional TV)

[hugh]

List of stations that will now be available in analog (in my area)

• ABC Buffalo (WKBW)
• A-Channel Barrie/Toronto (A-CHA)
• APTN (Aboriginal Peoples Television Network)
• CablePulse24
• CBC Newsworld/Voiceprint (SAP)
• CBC Toronto (CBLT)
• CBS Buffalo (WIVB)
• Citytv Toronto
• CPAC (Cable Public Affairs Channel)
• CPAC English (main audio) (Cable Public Affairs Channel)
• CTS (Crossroads Television System)
• CTV Newsnet
• CTV Toronto (CTVTO)
• E! Hamilton (CHCH)
• FOX Buffalo (WUTV)
• Global Toronto (CIII)
• NBC Buffalo (WGRZ)
• OMNI.1 (CFMT)
• OMNI.2
• Ontario Legislature
• PBS Buffalo (WNED)
• RDI
• RDI
• Rogers Sportsnet Ontario
• Rogers Television
• ShopTV Canada
• SRC Toronto (CBLFT)
• Star!
• SUN TV
• TFO (CHLF)
• The Shopping Channel (tSc)
• The Weather Network
• Treehouse
• TV5
• TVA Montreal (CFTM)
• TVA Montreal (CFTM)
• TVOntario (TVO - CICA)
• VisionTV
• W Network (East)
• YTV (East)

[nordberg]

I'm not sure why leaving a "basic antenna service" as unencrypted QAM would be a bad thing. Any station that is available OTA in said area should be left unencrypted, and maybe a feed of CBCHD, CTVHD, and Global HD.

It would be a "bonus" when you subscribe to broadband with the Cable company instead of the phone company. You get your internet and a clear local signal... no other basic services.

[Wayne]

Originally Posted by hugh

IMO, the digital service fee and the system access fees are in my mind unethical and really annoy me because its false advertising to say something is this amount a month guaranteed and then have a secondary fee that isn't advertised and can be jacked up on a whim.

These fees remind me of the touchtone fee that Bell Canada charged - it likely costs them more money to not provide touchtone service to their customers. Do they still charge such a fee (I dropped Bell years ago for Vonage)?

[smootherator]

the "digital access fee" is pure scam..since they admit it costs less to provide digital service why should people have to pay extra to have access to it?

It is very similar to the convenience fee people pay at banks for their bank cards. The cards save the banks money in the long run but they still charge folks for the privilege to use it.

I tried their digital box a while back and found no benefit to it...especially compared to what I already had...just ended up costing me about 20$ more for the exact same channels I already had.

[ralph_sinclair]

If there is one thing I hate, it's paying $3 a month (even if I bought it) to use a clunky, ugly digital cable box that requires its own complement of cords and a remote.

By the looks of the text on the first page, it is still business as usual for the analog tiers, so long as the customer is willing to stand firm. Nobody needs to be badgered into having their monthly cable bill increased if they don't want to.

I'll second that local OTA digital signals should be in the clear on QAM.

[mr weather]

Originally Posted by Wayne

These fees remind me of the touchtone fee that Bell Canada charged - it likely costs them more money to not provide touchtone service to their customers. Do they still charge such a fee (I dropped Bell years ago for Vonage)?

Yes, the Touch-Tone fee is still charged.

Again, another scam.

[NB Josh]

Originally Posted by hugh

However, I suspect in a few months that: they will announce the demise of analog cable tiers for all customers.

Hugh,

By this do you mean you think they will convert areas where digital isn't currently available to digital ready; or get rid of analog cable only in areas that are currently digital ready?

[tlamothe]

Funny how (CTV owned) TSN is moving to the digital side but Rogers Sportnet will still be available on analog.

[alebowgm]

Originally Posted by tlamothe

Funny how (CTV owned) TSN is moving to the digital side but Rogers Sportnet will still be available on analog.

This isn't actually 100% true. It depends on what area you are in, unless of course as part of this restructuring Rogers plans to reshuffle the channel lineups. In my area, which was originally a SHAW areas many years ago, TSN is part of the basic analog tier and Sportsnet is part of the expanded analog tier (TSN = 26, Sportsnet = 32). The story on the front-page right now fo Digital Home is slightly misleading, as in my Rogers servered area if you were to subscribe to basic analog services, you would get the following stations (and I just verified this as a friend of mine only is subscribed to these services)...

02 TVOntario (TVO - CICA)

03 Global Toronto (CIII)

04 OMNI.1 (CFMT)

05 TV Guide

06 CBC Toronto (CBLT)

07 Citytv Toronto

08 CTV Toronto (CTVTO)

09 CTS (Crossroads Television System)

10 NBC Buffalo (WGRZ)

11 E! Hamilton (CHCH)

12 SRC Toronto (CBLFT)

13 TFO (CHLF)

14 OMNI.2

15 SUN TV

16 CBS Buffalo (WIVB)

17 ShopTV Canada

18 ABC Buffalo (WKBW)

19 The Shopping Channel (tSc)

20 A-Channel Barrie/Toronto (A-CHA)

21 FOX Buffalo (WUTV)

22 The Weather Network

23 CBC Newsworld/Voiceprint (SAP)

24 CablePulse24

25 YTV (East)

26 TSN (The Sports Network)

27 W Network (East)

57 BET (Black Entertainment Television)

58 TVtropolis (East)

59 MTV Information

60 VisionTV

61 PBS Buffalo (WNED)

62 CTV Newsnet

63 Rogers Television

64 MuchMoreMusic

65 Treehouse

66 BNN (Business News Network)

70 APTN (Aboriginal Peoples Television Network)

95 TVA Montreal (CFTM)

96 RDI

97 CPAC (Cable Public Affairs Channel)

101 TVA Montreal (CFTM)

102 RDI

103 TV5

104 CPAC English (main audio) (Cable Public Affairs Channel)

105 Ontario Legislature

[nfitz]

Originally Posted by tlamothe

Funny how (CTV owned) TSN is moving to the digital side but Rogers Sportnet will still be available on analog.

Surely both will still be available in analogue. Unless I missed something, Rogers only announced they will stop selling analogue - not that they are turning off the analogue. And even then, the FAQ that was listed in the third post says "Only customers who show signs of disconnecting should be offered analogue services and downgrade options. " so really, they are still selling analogue if you shout at them for long enough.

[alebowgm]

I think the point was, that if you were starting from scratch today and only wanted analogue service as opposed to digital service, you have now lost options since some channels that were available a few weeks ago on the analogue tier, while they still remain, can no longer be subscribed to.