[mythtv-users] OT: followup to cable TV moving broadcast channel to digital tier (long)

[Marc Barrett]

Here's a more detailed explanation of the problem I mentioned
in a recent posting.  

I live in the Omaha-Council Bluffs metro area.  Omaha is in the 
state of Nebraska, while Council Bluffs is in Iowa.  Despite the 
state border between them, they act like one big city.  Cox 
Communications offers cable TV services to both Omaha and 
Council Bluffs, and all the services in both cities are exactly the 
same.  

There are two public TV stations in this area.  Nebraska Public TV
broadcasts out of Omaha, and Iowa Public TV broadcasts out of
Council Bluffs.  Each of these public TV stations is a major 
broadcasting station.  

Cox's cable TV service is pretty simple.  Basic cable is channels
1-65, and all you need is a cable-ready TV.  Digital TV includes 
these channels and channels 100-999.  

What happened is that Cox recently moved the Iowa Public TV
channel into the digital tier (channel 113).  This is a problem because
my mother lives in Council Bluffs, and likes some programming
carried in the Iowa Public TV channel that is not carried by the
Nebraska Public TV channel.  She gets Cox basic cable, and does
not subscribe to Cox's digital cable service.  As a result, she can
no longer watch the Iowa Public TV channel.

My guess is that, for people living in Nebraska, Cox could get away
with moving an Iowa channel to the digital tier, since for them the
Iowa channel is technically "out of state".  But I do not understand
how they could get away with this for Cox TV subscribers who live in
Iowa.

Any advice on this, and how I can convince Cox that what they are
doing is possibly illegal, would be appreciated.