At 7:17 PM -0500 1/5/07, Tom Barry wrote:
Craig Birkmaier wrote:At the moment the impasse between Cox and WESH is about additional money for the rights to carry WESH HD, which presumably is not covered under the existing re-trans agreement for WESH analog (Ch2). To be fair to WESH, Cox does charge extra for the HD tier, so WESH is just looking for a piece of the action.Cox may charge extra for an HD STB but they are not charging me extra just to be able to receive the HD broadcast stations on my PCHD card.
You are correct. I just looked at the website and they only require that you rent an HD receiver. Apparently these network HD feeds are not encrypted, as they must figure that its not worth it to deal with the handful of people that can hookup and watch these channel for free.
Cox encrypts most all digital stations and I can't get those. So I assume that if my PCHD cards or other peoples digital cable ready TV's pick up the HD versions of ABC, CBS, and PBS over Cox we are not stealing anything. Cable companies have hesitated to encrypt OTA shows because of various statements made by the FCC in the past. But there are exceptions and it is really unclear whether cable companies are allowed to do so.
An interesting dilemma.
I hope my limited basic ability to receive those stations does not disappear because of this post. But if it does I'll stop paying even the extra $5 / month for the limited basic. It's only the improved CBS (and soon Fox) reception that makes me keep that option. ;-)
I've had lunch with their chief engineer, but I don't think he is monitoring the list.
And BTW, I also do not pay for a Cox cable modem since I own my own since the Comcast days. But this only saves me something like $2-3 / month. I'm still paying over $50 / month for cable in Gainesville but the charge is listed mostly as being for my 7 mbps broadband service.I don't believe DSL broadband is competitive here in Gainesville unless you also already pay for a land line, which I have no use for.
I've been thinking about signing up for the Cox Triple Play. At the moment I am paying about $100/mo for one land line and DSL from Bellsouth and $75/mo for extended basic, HBO and an HD-PVR from Cox. I should be able to save a few bucks and get the same high speed broadband you are getting. Bellsouth DSL is still around one megabit per second.
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