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Armstrong Cable Stinks Yet Again
If you Google Armstrong Cable, one of the top results is a blog post I wrote last year talking about that our local cable monopoly, Armstrong Cable, carries the NFL Network but won't broadcast the NFL games that are shown there.
In the past, when the Steelers have played on Thursday nights, the game is simulcast on KDKA, as league rules say the local market must get the game free, over-the-air. For us in Meadville, we've been able to see those Thursday night games because we also get KDKA, in both standard and hi-def.
A story in today's Meadville Tribune says that Armstrong will be blacking out KDKA this Thursday night in the Meadville area.
From the story:
"Whenever we get a request, a valid request, to blackout a game, we black it out," said David Wittman, vice president of cable marketing at Armstrong, who said the company was officially notified of the blackout within the past couple days. "This year (NFL officials) made it very clear they want that game blacked out outside the Pittsburgh market."
Hey Armstrong - pony up for the damn channel and let us see the games. If it comes down to cost, make subscribers who want that channel pay extra. The challenge for you is that you're not dealing with rational people once you start messing with football. Steeler fans are a different breed and if they cannot watch the game on cable they pay a pretty penny for, they will not be happy.
It's almost like they want me to go to satellite. DirecTV subscribers get NFL Network and the games for no additional cost, plus they offer more HD channels.
I'm checking to see if The Movies at Meadville will be showing the game. If so, I'm there.
Posted by Mike at December 19, 2007 9:00 AM | Add to del.icio.usDon't forget to mention how Armstrong is starting to roll out a typo catching service that forwards dns requests to a 3rd party. Goodbye customer privacy, hello corporate profits!
$ dig @24.154.1.9 armstrong.sucks.balls
;; ANSWER SECTION:
armstrong.sucks.balls. 60 IN A 8.15.7.124
armstrong.sucks.balls. 60 IN A 65.200.200.54
I can go one better. The Grove City area is also considered by Armstrong to be "outside the Pittsburgh Designated Marketing Area (DMA)" (by the way, we have an Official Steelers Store at the Outlets, but I guess that's not marketing). Armstrong sent us a letter two days before game time to let us know about the "blackout". If I wasn't already pissed off enough, I learned that those who ARE inside Pittsburgh DMA include Venango and FOREST counties of PA, two counties in West Virginia and two counties in Maryland!!! These locations are twice as far from Pittsburgh than we are! I guess Armstrong considers Mercer County (PA) to be a suburb of Youngstown, Ohio and we're expected to change our allegiances to the Browns. I really didn't believe that they were going to do this to us, especially at this time of year, right up until game time. When the "blackout" occurred, I became so irrate that my nose actually started bleeding. Now, I know they are going to blame others (NFL, FCC, etc) for this, but they are the provider that has been forced upon us. They needed to do whatever it took to make their customers happy. They knew that this was a bombshell they were laying on us, but, as a monopoly, they don't have to care. THANKS, ARMSTRONG, FOR SUCH A WONDERFUL CHRISTMAS PRESENT AND SPREADING YOUR "GOODWILL" (represented at Armstrong by the middle finger) TO ALL!
Posted by: Curt at December 21, 2007 10:39 AM
