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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.

“Those aren’t channels they own,” Joe Van Eaton, a lawyer for the city of Dearborn and Meridian Township near Lansing, told U.S. District Judge Victoria Roberts during a four-hour court hearing today on a request for an injunction to prevent the move. “They’re the communities’ channels.”

Comcast lawyer David Scott disagreed, insisting that Comcast’s plans to move the so-called PEG – public, education and government – channels into the 900 digital level of the viewing dial is necessary for Comcast to provide higher-quality service and to remain competitive with other providers who don’t offer PEG and don’t provide free service to public schools. He said state and federal laws permit Comcast to make the switch.

He said Comcast has offered to provide a free digital converter for one year – a $4-a-month value – to subscribers with analogue televisions so they can continue to receive the PEG channels.

But Comcast employees testified that only about 12,000 of the 400,000 Comcast customers who Eaton said would be affected by tomorrow’s move have actually taken Comcast up on its free converter box offer.