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from: Media Mouse

Community Access Channels Moved from Basic Cable in Michigan

December 18, 2007

Today, the Grand Rapids Community Media Center (CMC) announced that Grand Rapids’ public access channels, GRTV and LiveWire, will no longer be offered as part of Comcast’s “basic” cable package. They will now only be available to digital subscribers. Comcast made the decision under options it was granted in last year’s State Uniform Video Franchise Act and has moved all community access channels in Michigan to the 900 tier of their digital cable service.

from: Blogging Stocks

Comcast: Is the collapse over?

Posted Dec 7th 2007 11:02AM by Douglas McIntyre

For several years, Comcast (NASDAQ: CMCSA) was considered one of the most successful companies in America. It used its cable franchise to build a huge broadband, VOD, and VoIP cash machine. The so-called "triple play" of voice, TV, and broadband could not be matched by telecom competitors, so Comcast took hundreds of thousands of phone customers away from them each quarter.

from: MLive.com

Comcast public channels go digital
Friday, December 07, 2007
By Dave Alexander
dalexander@muskegonchronicle.com with Chronicle News Service reports

Just like George Jefferson of 1970s sitcom fame, Muskegon area public access television channels "are movin' on up."

from: Grand Rapids Press

Comcast pushes public access into digital tier
Friday, December 07, 2007
By Chris Knape

GRAND RAPIDS -- Some Comcast subscribers may be seeing black next month when a handful of their channels move out of their regular lineup.

On Jan. 15, the Grand Rapids area's largest cable provider will shuttle its public access, education and government broadcasts from analog cable channels 24-28 to its digital system somewhere around channel 900.

Note: TV4US is an astroturf organization paid for by the telephone companies. What they fail to mention in this press release is that Verizon just announced a 11.5% rate increase on their cable TV services (on top of a 7.5% increase earlier in 2007). There is currently no evidence in any state that competition in cable TV services has resulted in lower prices. In Tennessee, AT&T is currently trying to ram through a state video franchise for the second time.

from: Times Herald

Comcast wrong to fiddle with public access

State law harms communities' ability to watch local government

Just when television broadcasts of the new Port Huron City Council's sessions promised to be interesting, Comcast soon will make them more difficult - and eventually more costly - to see.

from: Times Herald

Comcast stations to shut down
Municipalities are left scrambling to produce broadcasts

By SHANNON MURPHY
Times Herald

Local municipalities, such as Port Huron and Marysville, have been scrambling this week to make sure their city council meetings still will be broadcast on public access channels next year.

from: CNET

Net neutrality may not resolve Comcast vs. BitTorrent

from: Our Channels Indiana

Comcast Closes Public Access TV Studios Across Northern Indiana
Written by Andrea Price, on Sunday, 18 November 2007

A year and a half after the enactment of the Indiana Telecommunications Reform Act of 2006, Comcast notified producers in South Bend, Hammond, Merrillville, Mishawaka, Plymouth, Goshen, and Portage -- and Edwardsburg, Michigan - that it would be closing production studios and playback facilities for public access TV.

from: CNET

Congressman to Comcast: Stop interfering with BitTorrent
Posted by Chris Soghoian
October 25, 2007 7:15 AM PDT

While a class action lawsuit is definitely one way to get Comcast to behave, another perhaps more productive way to do so is to have politicians step in and regulate.