Comcast North Central Indiana changes

[jegrant]

Attached, please see a new channel lineup, and new price card recently mailed out to customers in Howard, Cass, Miami, and Tipton counties in Indiana. All changes are effective May 1, 2008 according to the letter, which I will post in the next day or two.

I think it's notable that at the very least, HDNet & HDNet Movies are still available, in their own package.

However - why are the Hallmark Channel and Speed TV not listed on the new lineup? They're not listed in the letter as being dropped. And Hallmark is one of the top rated basic cable networks lately. Speed may not be that highly rated, but I would guess that for the people who watch it, they consider it essential. Looks like these two nets are being taken off analog to add Comcast Sports Net and CSN+. Yet, they don't appear anywhere else on the lineup either.

New SD Channels:
Analog: Comcast Sports Net, Comcast Sports Net Plus
Digital: movieplex, Fox Reality, Fox Business Network, NBA Preview Channel, indieplex, retroplex
(Note: FLIX and mun2 will move to the Digital Classic tier, which makes both SD channels part of a cheaper package than before.)

New HD Channels (Digital):
A&E HD, ABC Family HD, AMC HD, CNN HD, Disney Channel HD, Food Network HD, Fox Sports Midwest HD, HGTV HD, MOJO, Versus/Golf Channel HD, National Geographic HD, Starz HD

Channels no longer offered:
AmericanLife TV, AZN TV (off air as of 4/9), Canal 52MX, Duplicate ESPN PPV channels (which only point to other PPV channels anyway), ESPNU, iLife TV, InDemand PPV HD, Lifetime Real Women, Ovation, Special Events HD, Starz West, Starz Cinema West

The only one I will really miss is AmericanLife TV - they have some interesting Canadian shows (from HGTV Canada & Life Network) such as Fixing Dinner and Until Debt Do U$ Part. AZN TV, I did watch occasionally - mostly the Japanese programming from Fujisankei TV. I'm sort of hoping that maybe Comcast will eventually add ImaginAsian TV.

I am happy to see the missing "*plex" channels added to complete the Encore multiplex.
It's also not a bad idea to bundle most of the sports networks into a separate package. The sad part is how much my rate will go up, even though I will no longer have to pay for bundled sports. I am sort of surprised that TV Games Network and Horse Racing TV are part of the new package, because I thought they were more like shopping channels (i.e. paid the cable/satellite system to be on it).

[jayn_j]

Pretty much identical to the one we got in Rockford a couple of weeks ago.

I would guess that anyone in the insight coversion can pretty much expect the same changes. We have already has Disney HD and ABC Family HD uploaded here. The rest is promised by end of the month.

[Marcus Carr]

It would be nice if they gave the rest of us the option of paying for HDNet. Guess they don't want the money.

[dishrich]

Almost just like what we got here, except:

-we originally had 8 Cinemax's (all the East feeds from Insight) & are being busted down to only THREE (we are not even getting to keep Thriller max like you guys are) - but we DO get to pay the same $$$.

-we are loosing Showtime Beyond, while you guys get to keep it as well (although they did leave on S-Next, S-Family & S-Women, which we already had from Insight)

-definitely a BUMMER about loosing AmericanLife - we are too!

[jegrant]

I wouldn't even mind if they put AmericanLife in the slightly higher "Digital Preferred" tier; surely it can't cost that much to Comcast.

And what of Hallmark and Speed? We're not much on car racing in our house, but my parents watch Hallmark religiously. My dad enjoys the Chuck Norris blocks, my mom likes the Hallmark movies (even sappier than Lifetime movies).

I *thought* Comcast and Hallmark recently kissed and made up.