Residents peeved as Comcast removes scores of channels

Dale City resident Stephanie Crenshaw was surprised while watching History channel on Monday night.

At 11:15 p.m., the channel disappeared and the screen reverted to a message telling her she needed a Comcast digital cable box to continue to receive the channel.

She soon found that most of her stations were missing.

But the channels weren’t dropped.

Comcast is currently in the process of moving all analog channels to a digital delivery platform, and they have been doing it in phases since May 24 in the area, Comcast spokeswoman Alisha Martin said.

A single analog cable channel takes up the same space that 10 digital standard definition, or three high definition channels occupy, Martin said.

She said the move to digital-only will free up space to allow Comcast to add even more channels, improve picture quality and increase Internet speeds.

A television in the News & Messenger’s Manassas breakroom hooked up to Comcast without a cable box can only receive 17 channels — the majority of them  local broadcast and public access outlets.

Martin said that those channels will also be digitized and removed from the analog spectrum at a future, undetermined date.

At that point, every Comcast subscriber in Prince William, Manassas and Manassas Park will need additional equipment to watch any channel, Martin said.

HDTV owners can still receive local channels in HD without any additional equipment if they hook up the cable wire directly to their television and program it.

Crenshaw, whose cable service was offered for free through her homeowner’s association, said that she couldn’t afford the necessary upgrades to continue to receive service.

“Now nobody has anything,” she said of her channel lineup. “I’d switch providers but I can’t afford that, either.”

But Martin said that existing customers can still receive the migrated, digitized channels for free.

Limited basic cable subscribers can get three digital adapters to allow the channels to still be received, Martin said.

Expanded basic cable subscribers can get the one digital set-top box and two digital adapters for free.

To get the free equipment, customers can come to any Comcast office, call them or go to their website, Martin said.

The adapters do not allow subscribers to get interactive features, like On-Demand, Martin said.

Any additional boxes or adapters needed would have to be rented from Comcast, Martin said.

Customers who already have a cable box, or a digital adapter, will not see any changes to their service, Martin said.

Crenshaw said that she did not receive any warning that the channels would be moved, unlike a mailing she received last week from Comcast that alerted Prince William subscribers of an upcoming electronic programming guide facelift, which is planned to be launched close to June 28.

Martin said that Comcast has been in contact with customers via bill messages, a series of direct mailings and other methods.

Staff writer David Pierce can be reached at 703-530-3905.