[mythtv-users] Comcast to purchase Time Warner Cable

[Gary Buhrmaster]

On Thu, Feb 13, 2014 at 5:12 AM, Jay Ashworth <jra at baylink.com> wrote:
...
> Oh, wait.  No, I'm thinking of "analog", which I'm sure Comcast is going
> to want to sunset, right?

Trying to predict the future, is, well, interesting.

Comcast has (at this point) an all-digital footprint.  No
analog left (the usual edge case exceptions always exist).

TWC has a mostly mixed market, but is moving to all
digital(*), but has been limited due to the cost of the
required investment.  The costs of the required investments
for their upgrades was one of the (rumored) reasons they
put themselves on the block.

A purchase by Comcast would almost certainly
accelerate the move to an all-digital system, and
the (follow-on) encryption of basic in that footprint.

For those that expect analog to remain available
long term, all I am going to say is "get over it".
Yes, there are even still a few grandfathered (low
powered) analog RF broadcasters last I checked,
even after the FCC "drop dead" digital conversion
dates, but analog cable across most of the
major MSO is going to go away, regardless of
ownership.  The only question is date, not
intent.

Gary

(*) TWC is moving most aggressively to all-digital in
areas that have seen substantial "theft of service"
issues, and for which they want to encrypt basic,
which, in other words, means the greater NYC
market first (which includes more than NYC)
(well, after their test bed in Maine), due to the FCC
requirement that encryption of basic can only be
implemented on all-digital systems.  TWC's schedule
for other markets has not been announced, but then,
no MSO has ever announced those schedules in
advance.