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from: Free Press

Legal battles stall Comcast's plan to move public access channels
January 14, 2008
By DAVID ASHENFELTER
FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER

A Macomb County judge issued a temporary order late today blocking Comcast's plans to move community access channels higher up the dial and out of the reach of thousands of Michigan cable subscribers with analog televisions in Warren and possibly the entire state.

Note: Harold Feld sizes up the big picture on the implications of Comcast's behavior and how that might impact other channel providers.

from: Wet Machine

Potentially Much More At Stake In Michigan Than PEG - NAB, PBS and Folks Worried About Bundling of Services Better Wake Up And Pay Attention!

Compared to the primary battles in Michigan, the fight between Comcast and local governments about Comcast's decision to migrate Public Educational and Government (PEG) channels to digital seems like small potatoes. But potentially, the lawsuit filed by the cities of Dearborn and Meridian in local federal court could have huge impact on how cable operators carry broadcast television and even how they bundle video services with their voice and broadband offerings.

Note: This hearing has been confirmed and is posted. It arose partly out of Comcast's dumping of PEG channels to the digital tier of channels in Michigan.

from: Committee on Energy and Commerce

Committee on Energy and Commerce Schedule Update
Tuesday, January 29, 2008

Public, Educational, and Governmental (PEG) Services in the Digital TV Age

from: MultiChannel News

Bright House Settles Public-Channel Spat

(Multichannel News) _ Opposition to Bright House Networks' decision to shift public, educational and governmental channels in Tampa, Fla., high up into the channel roster has ended.

The Tampa division of the Advance/Newhouse Communications-owned cable company and Hillsborough County have brokered a deal that would end local officials' opposition to putting the channels in the 600 range of numbers.

Note: More fallout from the Michigan State Video Franchise - on top of the Comcast PEG channel switch which has ended up in court. Apparently "more competition = less service and more complaints".

from: The Morning Sun
Charter Faces Complaints

January 13, 2008
By Lisa Satayut

from: Blogging Broadband

Comcast’s Response to Complaint on PEG Digitization Raises Broader Issues

Things have been moving quickly in Michigan over the course of the last couple of days – just as predicted in BloggingBROADBAND last week.

After months of discussion and a letter from House Energy & Commerce Committee Chairman John Dingell failed to dissuade Comcast from its plan to digitize and migrate public, education, and government (“PEG”) access channels, two Michigan communities and one Comcast customer filed a lawsuit in the US District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan to stop Comcast’s PEG channel migration plan. The lawsuit was filed last Friday afternoon – less than 100 hours before Comcast’s plan would be complete as the clock ticked to 12:01 a.m. tomorrow morning. The parties’ briefing occurred over the weekend, and an oral hearing on the communities’ motion for a temporary restraining order was scheduled for today at 9 a.m. The matter has been docketed as case number 08-10156, and pleadings are available electronically through PACER.

from: Free Press

Judge to rule today on Comcast's channel change
Those with analogue TVs would be affected
January 14, 2008
BY DAVID ASHENFELTER
FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER

A federal judge will decide by the end of the day whether to block Comcast’s decision Thursday to move public access channels up the dial and out of the reach of thousands of Michigan cable subscribers with analogue televisions.

from: Grand Rapids Press

Comcast Switch May Limit Grand Rapids’ Election Coverage
January 14, 2008

Jon Koeze, administrator of the city’s cable television access Channel 26, does not score big ratings on most evenings.

Now he is afraid a switch by Comcast cable will ruin one of his biggest nights of the year Tuesday.

from: Telephony Online

Qwest charts different video course
By Carol Wilson

Jan 11, 2008 11:10 AM

Fat Internet pipes to access VoD, not IPTV, will meet consumer demands of the future, new Qwest leadership believes

DENVER--While AT&T and Verizon aggressively deploy video services via their U-Verse and FiOS TV offerings, respectively, Qwest Communications is pursuing a very different video strategy. It may appear to be no strategy at all – but that’s a misconception. Qwest is, in fact, expecting the fat broadband pipes that it is developing to become the conduit for a wide range of video-on-demand offerings, including high-definition video.