Cable

anfield

Recently moved from the Slope to PH and as a result had to change my cable from Time/Warner to Cablevision. Arrrgh! No BBC America and just generally user unfriendly. T/W were no angels but these guys are killing me. They make sure to have all the PPV porn easily accessible, though, between YES and the Food Network. Sport, sex, food - that's about right. Anyway, What's the deal with the cable monopoly from area to area?

alafairnadia

Subject: Re: Cable

ANFIELD wrote: Recently moved from the Slope to PH and as a result had to change my cable from Time/Warner to Cablevision. Arrrgh! No BBC America and just generally user unfriendly. T/W were no angels but these guys are killing me. They make sure to have all the PPV porn easily accessible, though, between YES and the Food Network. Sport, sex, food - that's about right. Anyway, What's the deal with the cable monopoly from area to area?

it sucks, for sure. but let me just say, if you swap out the crap splitter (if you're using them for more than just TV), you'll find your service fails rarely, way less than time warner. and .. well, I can watch bbc world news on pbs ...

dw438

Subject: Re: Cable

ANFIELD wrote: Recently moved from the Slope to PH and as a result had to change my cable from Time/Warner to Cablevision. Arrrgh! No BBC America and just generally user unfriendly. T/W were no angels but these guys are killing me. They make sure to have all the PPV porn easily accessible, though, between YES and the Food Network. Sport, sex, food - that's about right. Anyway, What's the deal with the cable monopoly from area to area?

Some history. The outer boroughs of NYC were late to the cable tv game; they had to wait until the '80's. Lots of politics behind this one, but the short version is that franchises to the so-called "affluent" areas of Brooklyn and Queens were awarded to a subsidiary of Warner Communications (BQ Cable), the rest of Brooklyn and the Bronx to Cablevision, Staten Island went to a separate company, and southeast Queens went to a black-controlled company (Queens Inner Unity, or QUICS) run by Percy Sutton and others, affiliated with Warner Communications. Manhattan already had two cable systems, one below 96th St, one above, both owned by separate companies. The one below 96th St was called Sterling Manhattan Cable, it was Manhattan's original cable tv company starting in the 1960's, and ironically was Cablevision founder Charles Dolan's first foray into a very lucrative business (he also founded the MSG Network well before family ownership of same arena ... and Home Box Office). FYI the one above 96th Street was known as TelePrompTer, run by the same company as the patented prompting device.
After about 20 years of mergers, all that are left are two companies, and rumors that Time Warner will take over Cablevision's NYC systems. Cablevision has pretty negative customer relations and a history of pushing their crappy homemade channels and yes, pay-per-jerk porn; just ask any Long Island resident.
That's all for NYC Cable 101.
Next lesson: the politics of NY1.

flute

Subject: Re: Cable

dw438 wrote: Next lesson: the politics of NY1.

THAT's a lesson I am very, VERY curious about ... bring it on DW438 !!

candicissima

Subject: Re: Cable

dw438 wrote: southeast Queens went to a black-controlled company (Queens Inner Unity, or QUICS) run by Percy Sutton and others, affiliated with Warner Communications.

We had QUICS! Anybody remember when the cable box was just like one switch: WHT and that other one?

devincf

haha, Wometco Home Theater.

dw438

Subject: Re: Cable

FLUTE wrote: [quote=dw438]Next lesson: the politics of NY1.

THAT's a lesson I am very, VERY curious about ... bring it on DW438 !!

To paraphrase historian/professor/author Fred Siegel, NY1 was commonly known as the Sharpton News Network.

medusa

We could never get cable when I was growing up (in Prospect Lefferts Gardens). Now my parents have it, but I don't think it really became available there until the late 90s.

I use Direct TV rather than Cablevision and have been happy with it. I wish I could get NY1, though.

11238

I grew up in Manhattan so I had cable in 1979/1980. We had this box that was the size of a small keyboard and each channel was a button and there were three rows of buttons and a toggle switch on the left to go to each row. The channels were all letters. I remember channel J was the soft porn channel. I think the company was called Manhattan Cable Television (how original). Those were the days!!!! :shock: