STEUBENVILLE - Big Ten football fans who are Comcast subscribers on the city cable system won't be receiving the Big Ten Network in time for Thursday's season opener between the Buckeyes and the Thundering Herd of Marshall.
However, unlike previous years, Big Ten relief is on the way before the end of the college football season, along with a wider channel lineup and some reassigned numbers for local and Pittsburgh stations.
Comcast is in the process of rolling out a digital upgrade of the system for its standard cable customers, and among the expanded channel lineup will be the Big Ten Network, according to spokesman Bob Grove for the Comcast Keystone Region, based in Pittsburgh.
Information has been mailed to subscribers and more will be coming this week or early next week about the upgrade, which includes much higher capacity for digital TV channels and HD channels, more on-demand choices and potential speed increases for Internet service.
"We're calling it the 'World of More,' and it's an all-digital initiative," Grove explained. Most customers, he said, already have at least one piece of digital equipment in the form of a set-top box.
The initiative now is to take customers who receive standard cable and convert their homes to receive digital cable. That means equipment to attach to TVs in the home to receive the new and expanded channel lineup.
Comcast emphasized the upgrade is for standard cable, affecting channels 22-70 on the city system.
Customers who receive only basic cable, covering only channels 2 through 22 will continue to be able to receive that service without digital equipment.
Comcast will offer a digital box and two digital adapters free.
The set-top box allows reception of on-demand and the ordering of pay-per-view programming, as well as 48 music channels, Grove said. The adapters, for other sets in the home, will allow reception of all the channel lineup customers currently receive, as well as additional channels.
"If you are already a digital customer with a box, you are eligible for two digital adapters," he said. "We set on the total of three pieces of free equipment because surveys show the average household has 2.8 televisions."
Grove said there is no additional charge for the standard customers undergoing the upgrade or the digital customer getting the two adapters.
Beyond equipping three total TVs, Comcast will charge $1.99 a month per adapter after the first two.
Grove said customers have been demanding more HD channels, faster Internet service and more on-demand choices.
He noted Internet speed doubled last year at no cost to customers and faster Internet speeds can be expected in the future.
The exact channel list will be available in the near future, but Grove noted as soon as customers hook up the equipment, they will receive 26 digital channels they don't get now, including C-SPAN 2 and 3, Biography, VS., Hallmark and MSNBC. In coming months, up to 100 HD channels will be available.
"The reason we're able to do this is the amount of bandwidth involved for a customer with no digital equipment, once they are digital equipped, is such that we can put 10 digital channels or three HD channels on the same bandwidth for one channel without digital equipment," he said.
Comcast will make the digital adapters for digital and standard customers, as well as the set-top boxes for standard customers, available in a few ways: By visiting the local Comcast office (Church Street in Wintersville) or by calling a toll-free number (877) 634-4434, or by visiting comcast.com/digitalnow. Callers and Web visitors can order the equipment to be delivered to the home.
In addition, Comcast is planning a couple of events to distribute equipment to Steubenville customers. Grove said details about where and when those events will be held will be forthcoming.
He also answered a question about the availability of the Pittsburgh channels on the Steubenville system. They are moving up to higher channel numbers but remain available.
He said Comcast wanted to standardize the local channels into groupings for their digital offerings, so the WTRF offerings are grouped around its old analog number, 7; while WTOV's offerings are grouped around 9.
He said any customers who don't have digital cable who want to see the Pittsburgh stations will be able to do so with the free box offer.
(Giannamore can be contacted at pgiannamore@heraldstaronline.com.)
