[mythtv-users] OT: When is Rogers killing analog cable

[Colin McGregor]

On 9/12/09, George Nassas <gnassas at mac.com> wrote:
> On 2009-09-10, at 7:42 PM, Michelle Dupuis wrote:
>
>> I've heard the Rogers will be killing off analog cable in Ontario
>> (Canada) soon - whenever soon is.
>
> Where did you hear that? I didn't see anything from a quick search of
> digitalhome.ca
>   and they're pretty quick with that sort of news.

Let me note that I am ... well, not a Rogers fan would be the polite
way to put things... Last year it took some four months of my cable &
Internet going up/down with painful regularity before it was
determined that a squirrel had attacked the cable where it left the
pole to my house... Last year I also found out how bad Rogers customer
service could be. After I was told that Rogers only supported MS
Windows and Mac OS-X, I got a used G3 Mac, only to find out that Mac
support was just as bad as their Linux support (non-existant). Later
one Rogers rep. told me that because I wasn't running MS Windows at
home, I didn't know anything about computers... :-( .

The above noted, there would be an uproar of the first order if Rogers
were to drop analog cable in the NEAR future, so I don't see it
happening soon. However, there are various reasons why I expect Rogers
will push hard to drop analog as soon as practical, namely:

- Once they have a digital box in people's home it becomes easier to
up-sell to various higher end pay/pay-per-view services.
- No analog means more room for specialised digital channels, which
means a bigger market in places like Toronto's ethnic communities.

Bottom line for me is that I love my MythTV box more than I love
Rogers. When Rogers does drop analog cable, if there isn't a good way
to integrate Rogers with MythTV (there isn't now) then it is Rogers
cable that will be dropped, not my MythTV box...

Over the air digital TV has some quirks, but at least it is a very
clean fit with MythTV...


Colin McGregor

> Somewhere in the hazy past I recall reading that they have to maintain
> analog as long as at least 10% (or thereabouts) of the subscriber base
> is on analog.
>
> - George