KXAN – The Saga Continues
October 9th, 2008 | Published in Austin, Television, Unreal | 2 Comments
Those of you in the Austin and surrounding areas have more than likely noticed that KXAN and the NBC affiliate are no longer on the air. Due to disputes between Time Warner Cable and LIN, the company that owns KXAN, Time Warner has pulled the station from their Austin market. Currently, if you are a Time Warner customer you have no access to shows like “The Office”, “ER” and “HEROES”, just to name a few.
Whether you agree with the negotiations on who is wrong or right in this situation, I don’t really care. What I care about is the fact that I pay Time Warner a lot of money for the services that I have with them and I want to get my money’s worth. I want the NBC station back on the air. If it’s KXAN, fine. I am even fine with a San Antonio or Waco station being broadcast on the air, just bring it back.
I know full well that Time Warner won’t be crediting my bill for services that are no longer being provided. Guess who is having to pay for this little dispute? Their customers.
October 10th, 2008 at 10:01 am (#)
Hear hear! You know that Time Warner is not valuing their customer at this time because they are throwing the lack of KXAN in our face at every opportunity. They could simply remove KXAN from the menu lineup, but they refuse in order to make a statement. Now they are showing premium channel previews in its place with a friendly message about why KXAN is evil and how “loving” they are being by replacing it with a preview…. with an obvious ulterior motive to upsell us!
I hate Time Warner. I hate monopolies. And why can’t we watch TV exclusively on the Internet yet?
October 10th, 2008 at 5:41 pm (#)
I think that Time Warner isn’t completely without fault regarding this, but seriously did any of us subscribe to Time Warner for the local channels? No, we wanted ESPN, Bravo, History or the many multitude of channels that TWC offers us and the HD channels as well.
It should all come down to the fact that KXAN and more specifically what I think everyone is upset about NBC has not been taken away from us. It is currently all around us, and if we’d take the time to stop suckling from the coaxial tit for a second Austin would realize that with a $10 set of rabbit ears we can get the same signal that KXAN (and if KXAN got their way TWC) wants to charge us extra for.
I live in Kyle probably 15 to 20 miles from KXAN and with my set of rabbit ears I get an HD signal for not only KXAN but all of the other local channels that looks as good as what TWC brings into the house. Right now because of this dispute though I get a free movie channel that my kids can watch and if I simply change the source on my channel there is KXAN once again warming me with its soft glow and awkward The Office moments.
I will tell you that the one major downside to my set up is lack of DVR capabilities with NBC. Last night was a struggle to get the kids to be during the 15 minutes before the Office started and during the commercials.
However if TWC would have to charge me extra for their service for a free network I say down with KXAN and their greed.