As I was watching the news on Saturday night I found out that KMOV will no longer be carried by Charter Communications after Dec. 31 because the two companies cannot reach a programming agreement.
So what does this mean? Well it means we will no longer get Channel 4, a CBS affiliate, if we are a Charter Communications cable subscriber. Visit KMOV to find out more on the deal.
This upsets me greatly because I don’t want to have to change my service because I have internet and cable television with Charter. But I may look at switching my service because there are quite a few shows that I watch at night the CSI series, NCIS, Criminal Minds and comedies such as How I Met Your Mother and Two and Half Men.
Of course I’m not home during the day, but for those of you who are and watch daytime television by Charter, you will no longer be able to view your favorite SOAPs such a The Young and the Restless.
What’s even worse is that you will not be able to watch the nightly news with the Channel 4 news team.
OK so what can you do? To let Charter know how you feel here are a few contact numbers:
Charter Communications offices: 314-965-0555
Charter Customer Service: 1-888-GET CHARTER (1-888-438-2427)
Charter E-mail:SteveGM@chartercom.com
All cable subscribers need to voice an opinion to Charter because if we don’t we will no longer get to watch our favorite CBS programs. Remember this only effects Charter Communications customers and not other cable distribution companies.
2 words my freind direct TV
Thank you for the uneducated consumer, alarmist, couch-potato version of what is happening here. I bet you refinanced your house with an ARM and spent your equity on a vacation and have 10 credit cards with balances that you pay the monthly minimum payment on.
This is nothing more than corporate greed at its finest and it is Belo that is at fault – not Charter. Your emails and phone calls would better be directed at Belo executives – NOT KMOV or Charter. The local people (KMOV) just want to keep their jobs and report local news and the local consumers just want their familiar faces without having to click a couple extra buttons on a remote control. Big Deal. Get Real.
Belo wants Charter to pay THEM 1 cent per customer per month to include KMOV in the charter basic plan. With 440,000 customers, that amounts to $1.6 million dollars annually. That means Charter has to raise another $1.6 million in capital to break even. That means 440,000 people have to pay $1.6 million to Belo executives – none of which will to go to KMOV or the local news folks or the local economy.
What KMOV isn’t telling is you is that when they broadcast their plea’s for you to call Charter is that KTVI and KSDK are not charging Charter to carry THEIR FREE signal. They make their money off ADVERTISERS – like FREE TV was meant to be. Their executives aren’t trying gouge cable customers to line their pockets. Why is KMOV the only local media that is trying to gouge cable customers for something non-cable customers can get for FREE?
If KMOV doesn’t allow Charter to broadcast for free, they will lose market share, which will eventually cause them to sell – hopefully at a loss to the foreigners who came here to skim profits from our local economy.
I have friends that work at the local media outlets in St. Louis and they have been getting the short-end of the stick from these outsiders for years now. They are not your friendly local TV stations any more. They are all owned by the same greedy billionaires that brought you the housing market collapse and lending crisis.
I am a Charter customer and I don’t want to pay more money to large media conglomerate executives just because they say it is the right thing to do. I am smart enough to make up my own mind that paying more and getting nothing in return is bad. Wake up and stop listening to billionaires who tell you to give them money.
RIP KMOV – There are plenty of sources of fiction on the public airwaves. That’s the beauty of the free market economy – if there is demand, someone will replace you when you fail due to bad management decisions. Hopefully it will be a local company and not just another group of foreign millionaires looking to skim profits out of another local economy.
Mark
OK, you missed my point Mark. I know how business can be, but for you to make assumptions about my personal finances… you are way off base.
I understand the economy, but for the most part people will not care about all the background as to why it’s happening. They will only care about catching their favorite shows on CBS. I will be paying attention to see how things turn out – corporate greed or not.
Charter is paying for no other over the air ways station. Why should they pay BELO? People that have charter should check with their local radio shack and see what they have to help with this. I would bet they have some type of a/b switch that you can go from antenna to cable. An antenna and a/b switch would be a lot cheaper and easier than than changing cable services, phone and internet services. I have my issues with charter from time to time but this is blackmail on BELO’s part.
The commercials KMOV is running make them look like they are being screwed over. Yea right. If charter has to drop kmov I hope that kmov lowers their advertising prices since they will have less viewership.
I’m not saying charter is the best but this is a big play by belo.
Spin it however you want, but this is why charter has such terrible customer service.Make the change to dish network and at&t dsl service. The bill is about 50 dollars cheaper, I have a clearer picture, and do not notice a difference in my internet speed. Unless you like calling in every six months to get your promotion price.
Bear in mind, if you only use KMOV as a source, you will only get their side of the story. KMOV is being disingenuous when they say that Charter pays other networks for their programming without mentioning that Charter doesn’t pay any other local broadcaster to carry their signals.
There is a history here. In the early days of cable, the local broadcasters DEMANDED that cable carry their stations for free, instead of the locals having to PAY the cable companies for the priviledge. How times have changed.
I think KMOV is counting on the many viewers who feel as you do, that they only care about catching their favorite shows on CBS, to try to exert pressure on Charter to agree to KMOV’s terms. I wonder whose stomach is stronger: Charter for potentially losing subscribers or KMOV for potentially losing viewers?
All I know is, almost everywhere in the metro area, you can pull Channel 4′s signal off the air for free. Yes, it’s inconvenient to switch between signal sources (between cable and an external antenna, e.g., rabbit ears). And if you are a DVR subscriber like we are, you won’t be able to record CBS shows on your Charter DVR. However, if Charter gives in to this, one would assume the other local channels would want the same deal. And that would mean higher cable bills for us all.
Personally, I hope Charter hangs tough. Cable bills are high enough as it is. We don’t need them to go higher because of this. All the local broadcasters except KETC are ad-supported. They NEED viewers. They should be doing everything they can to attract viewers. Asking us (though higher cable fees) to pay for the privilege of viewing their ad-supported content makes no sense to me, UNLESS the locals incur costs to put their signal on cable. And I don’t think they do.
I appreciate all the feedback. I want to hear what people are saying. I don’t think it’s right what is going on, but I also know that a majority of people are unaware of what is taking place. I don’t want to see Charter rates go up anymore than the next person and I don’t want to see KMOV try to pull one over either.
Keep your comments coming because what you have to say will enlighten all the readers out there.
thanks for these blogs, because i did not know a lot of this.
I had to jump in here. I had not heard about this story, so I decided to look at the Blog to see what it was all about. I am pretty ticked off that Mark jumps in here and starts making comments about people’s personal finances blah blah blah. What is that all about?!?! Is there a reason that Mark decided to attack someone? Talk about going off subject, this Mark character is obviously a jerk. I am soooo sorry if anyone else was offended by his remarks.
Mark,
I understand what you are saying and I feel Charter should not cave in to this extortion but I have plugged your numbers into my calculator and I must be doing something wrong because 440,000 customers times 1 cent per month times 12 months comes up to $52,000 per year. Am I doing something wrong? I am not coming anywhere close to the $1.6 million that you are claiming.
Charter has always had bad customer service as far as I’m concerned. They were very rude to me on the phone when I called to inquire about a modem problem we were having and now this just gives me the extra push I needed to switch providers. And of course the email I sent two days ago to Charter asking about this was never returned. Nowhere on the website could I find anything addressing this issue either; however, KMOV has an entire page dedicated to it. How’s that for customer service! Bye Bye Charter.
Those who speak of Charter’s bad customer service are correct.
I spent three HORRIBLE years as a Charter subscriber for my cable and internet. We lived in an apartment building, and because there were so many subscribers on one line, we hard a hard time getting enough signal to support our service. We had the movie channels, digital, all that jazz… to the tune of $140/month including internet. For over a year and a half, we spent literally 3-4 days of every week with NO internet service. On the days it actually did work, the connection constantly popped on and off and we were getting so little signal that it was slower than my mother in law’s dial up.
We had techs in our building at least monthly, always with the same diagnosis… the building would have to be rewired. They made appointment after appointment to fix it, and never showed up. Finally, an installer came with a spool of wire. He said basically that it wasn’t their problem and dropped it off for our landlord to do it.
They never offered to comp any of our services. Although once, the rep I spoke to did offer to give us our movie channels free for three months until he realized “Oh, you already subscribe to those. Have a good day!”
That was the end of our Charter days. We got the approval to switch to Dish Network and made the change. Our Dish service with DVR is $55/month, and the same speed DSL through AT&T is $60 including the phone line. Charter tries their best to convince everyone that satellite service is constantly interrupted by weather; I can only think of 2 times in over 2 years that we’ve had our signal go out.
Even after we had cancelled our service and returned our equipment to the office in East Alton, we continued to get billed for 3 months, including the warnings that our service would be cut off if we didn’t pay.
It all that time with Charter, we were never able to speak with a single representative that had a firm grasp on the English language. It’s possible that the same could be said for Dish Network, but I wouldn’t know because I’ve NEVER had to call.
I know this isn’t a bash Charter blog, but I’ve never heard anyone out there say “Wow, Charter’s customer service is so great,” and I’m honestly surprised that people (those who have the option, I know that some don’t) would continue to get their services with them.
Regardless of who the blame is to be laid upon in this instance, I think one common thought rings through to a lot of people here… this entire country is being run on corporate greed, and I for one am sick of it.
Mark came at it the wrong way, but he IS right.
Here’s a solution. Go to Best Buy and buy a $10 VHF/UHF antenna that you can set behind your TV and you can pull in 2, 4, 5 and 30 in brillant HD. At the worst, you can buy a A-B switch that allows you to switch from cable to regular TV.
Seriously Mark, you have issues. I googled the changes that are about to come to KMOV in regards to Charter and that’s how I got to this site. Thank you all for the valuable information, but I HATE charter as well, so it’s easier to blame them. But, I just had to leave a comment about Mark’s immature response, we’re all adults……..act like it