Bright House CableCARD customers win battle, get their HD channels back
By Darren Murph 
posted Mar 31st 2008 11:45AM
posted Mar 31st 2008 11:45AM
Chalk one up for the little guys. After Bright House Cable ganked a number of HD channels from CableCARD users early last month in "preparation" for the SDV transformation, a chorus of complaints flooded in. Now, it seems as if the carrier has caved, and the channels that were removed (along with the networks added to non-CableCARD lineups) will be redelivered sometime this week. Granted, the jubilation will come to a screeching halt in August / September once SDV is actually implemented, but hopefully a workaround will be available by then to enable switched digital support for CableCARD. Be sure to chime in below once you see the stations come back online, and yeah, we're raising our glasses over here in celebration, too.[Thanks, TiVo Community]
Okay, so if BHC was so willing to listen to their customers, why are we letting Time Warner Cable off so easily? Why aren't we demanding that they hold off on SDV until after they first provide CableCard users with the proposed "workaround" coming in Q2? I think it's time for push to come to shove!!
The difference was that BHN had YET to deploy SDV, and removed access to those HD channels months before they intended to convert. From what I understand, TWC has already implemented SDV in many areas, and getting them to stop forward movement would be difficult, indeed! There were several complaints filed about BHN to the FCC, city and county departments, placed by myself and others in Central Florida.
This is interesting because as a BHN (CFL) customer looking to move to Tivo HD, I called Brighthouse yesterday (3/30) and asked about HD channel availability with Cable Cards. I even mentioned the Orlando Sentinel article and the EngadgetHD article regarding this matter. The person I spoke to told me over and over again that they do not block any HD content for Cable Card customers. I was sure he was mistaken, but now I guess maybe he wasn't. Or maybe he was and this is just a coincidence.
Great news! I'll buy my Tivo HD now.
I would hardly call the TiVo community in CFL "little guys". They were very determined to receive the HD channels. Kudos to them for
raising the issue and Bright House for listening!