Why is KTLA no longer carried on North San Diego County Cox??

Sdnative said:

KTLA is a big time station for local news in the LA area. They even cover some San Diego stories (and do a better job than some San Diego channels). I'm FURIOUS WITH COX CABLE for making such a drastic move to stop carrying the channel! It was the only L.A. news station we had in San Diego. I simply can't let a cable company dictate to me what channel I can and can't have with the cable bill continuing to go up all the while. I will be discontinuing cable TV service with Cox and just have broadband internet. That way I can stream KTLA news from their website which is almost as good. If you have a laptop computer with a HDMI output, it's even better. That way you can connect to the big screen TV.

This happened over six months ago and you're just now voicing your concerns? I was a big KTLA News fan (less so after the death of Hal Fishman.) I went into withdrawal for a few months.

There are many reasons that Cox might have done this (Cox wouldn't tell me.) It might have been a retransmission consent issue, with KTLA demanding more money. It might have been that there were signal duplication issues that could not be resolved. It might have been due to KTLA dropping their analog SD feed to Cox, and Cox unable/unwilling to convert the HD signal to SD. I have an antenna for LA stations, and the KTLA signal is one of the worst. It might have been a combination of all of these, with Cox deciding to use the 6MHz at 123MHz for other purposes. Exactly why? Cox wouldn't tell me.

This happened so long ago that I had to go into archived announcements to get information on it. We ran an ad in the newspapers in June. 

We stopped carrying KTLA because it was an out-of-market station, thus not covered by 'must-carry' rules, whose network content was duplicated by XETV 6. You may notice that we no longer have a channel 14 at all, as we have repurposed that bandwidth for other advanced services.

You have already found that some of their exclusive local content is available on their website, so I don't need to tell you about that. 

Kip,

I'm still curious to see or hear what advanced services have been provided for in place of removing KTLA.   Can those be listed somewhere?   As far as I see, we lose one channel and I've yet to see what's replaced it.  Since I have Cox "Essential", having additional "advanced" services doesn't benefit me for this loss of service.

And yes, I understand it's been a length of time since this change occurred, but as a long time customer, I'd like to think it's not too much of an inconvenience to tell me why I'm paying more for less as I am perceiving this.

Thank you

he means more digital channels and more channels for HSI

Exactly this. I actually can't say simply because the charts I have access to haven't been updated, but one analog channel is worth between two and twenty digital channels depending on whether they're HD or SD and whether they're fixed or switched, or just a whole big chunk of data bandwidth.

Domino, I've been out of the country protecting your freedom. I hope that's a good enough reason for you.  To suggest that 6 months is too long to voice my opinion is like saying laws and rules enacted after a certain amount of time shouldn't be complained about. Yes, Hal Fishman was definitely the man and the face of KTLA news.  I think their coverage of news stories is still tops though.

KipK, if Cox cared enough to find out how many customers watched KTLA specifically for its LA area news, the decision makers upstairs might have been surprised.  I get email surveys from Cox all the time. Not one involved questions about KTLA or channel favorites. The whole "out of market" excuse is besides the point.  There was more to it that simply that reason. San Diego has a huge population of people with close ties to the LA area (including me) since it's really not that far away compared to the distance between LA and San Francisco. People routinely commute between the two cities on a weekly or even daily basis. KTLA was carried in the channel line-up for decades according to others I've talked to. It's not like it was a newer channel.  Yet another reason for total a la carte cable. That goodness for Internet streaming though.

Sdnative said:

Domino, I've been out of the country protecting your freedom. I hope that's a good enough reason for you.  To suggest that 6 months is too long to voice my opinion is like saying laws and rules enacted after a certain amount of time shouldn't be complained about.

I said nothing of the sort. I see that you chose not to comment on any of the possible reasons I gave for KTLA's departure. So be it.

Okay Kip, when will those charts be updated so you can say what took the place of KTLA?  As someone else noted, it's been quite a few months now so there should be an expectation that the bandwidth that was KTLA's has been mapped out already and is used for?

Again, as a paying customer, I'm seeing one less channel, and a favorite at that, and am paying more than I was when KTLA was still available.  Please explain when can you expect to see those charts and when we can have a solid answer on why there is less service for a higher cost.

And please look at this primarily as a factor of KTLA being desired, out of town market or not, for the various reasons already stated.

Thank you,

willb said:

Okay Kip, when will those charts be updated so you can say what took the place of KTLA?  As someone else noted, it's been quite a few months now so there should be an expectation that the bandwidth that was KTLA's has been mapped out already and is used for?

Again, as a paying customer, I'm seeing one less channel, and a favorite at that, and am paying more than I was when KTLA was still available.  Please explain when can you expect to see those charts and when we can have a solid answer on why there is less service for a higher cost.

I suggest you re-read the terms and conditions, such as:

"Programming: You acknowledge that Cox reserves the right at any time and in its sole discretion to change its channel lineup and/or to pre-empt specific programs or parts of programs previously advertised as available. Cox also reserves the right to alter its fee structure upon notice to You. You may immediately terminate service upon notice to Cox. You may not rebroadcast, transmit, record, perform, or charge admission to view or listen to any of the programming made available by the Services unless you obtain and pay for any public performance licenses."

Plus, I don't remember reading your kudos when Cox added channels with no price increase (such as the Big Ten Network SD/HD, and the PAC-12 Network SD/HD.)

Really Domino?  

I know the terms and conditions but still hope Cox Communications is into customer service and could answer some very basic concerns rather than be shown the usual "we reserve the right" business.

And perhaps you didn't read back on the thread and note that I'm not at the service tier that would even benefit from those added channels you just mentioned, or even notice that my being in San Diego County means the Big Ten Network & Pack 12 Network aren't even of interest to me.  They are "out of town" networks, just like KTLA is, except I'm actually interested in KTLA.  You want kudos for Cox?   Return KTLA to the lineup and you'll have it.

Thank you,

willb said:

Really Domino?  

I know the terms and conditions but still hope Cox Communications is into customer service and could answer some very basic concerns rather than be shown the usual "we reserve the right" business.

And perhaps you didn't read back on the thread and note that I'm not at the service tier that would even benefit from those added channels you just mentioned, or even notice that my being in San Diego County means the Big Ten Network & Pack 12 Network aren't even of interest to me.  They are "out of town" networks, just like KTLA is, except I'm actually interested in KTLA.  You want kudos for Cox?   Return KTLA to the lineup and you'll have it.

Thank you,

 

I couldn't care less if you give "kudos" to Cox. I previously gave you many possible reasons why KTLA has been dropped (along with all out-of-market OTA stations) from all San Diego area cable systems. You chose to ignore that. The four Big Ten and PAC-12 channels are not out of town networks, "just like KTLA is." KTLA is a FCC licensed over-the-air television station, while those other four are satellite delivered cable channels.  As far as "being in San Diego County means the Big Ten Network & Pack 12 Network aren't even of interest to me" goes, they are of GREAT interest to many. Being a CAL graduate and UCLA graduate student, I have enormous interest in the PAC-12 Network. I upgraded my DVR just so I could receive the PAC-12 HD signal. Think there are a few PAC-12 or Big Ten graduates in San Diego County? You want KTLA? Either put up a good antenna, or move one county to the north. It ain't coming back to Cox. Deal with it.

Ah, rudeness at last.

Why even respond Domino when you display that.  You mentioned giving kudos to Cox and when I respond to that, you tell me you couldn't care less? Then why mention it in the first place?

And I understand the reasons Cox gave for dropping KTLA from their San Diego North County offerings, with the bottom line being terms and conditions. I did not ignore them here or in the newspaper and other outlets where they appeared either, for that matter. That doesn't mean I have to "deal with it" by not saying a word or putting up an antenna or taking up the absurd suggestion to move.  I'm dissatisfied with the decision to not continue a valued service and I'm stating it here.

I'm not certain if you are a customer representative, a volunteer moderator or just another subscriber Domino, but please remember to be helpful and courteous in your replies when posting in a help forum.

Thank you

You said nothing of the sort Domino? You tried to call me out on "just now" bringing up the KTLA channel drop 6 months after the fact. And I chose not to comment on the reasons you gave for the KTLA situation because none of them make sense. I call them excuses not "reasons".  If analog channels use more bandwidth than digital channels and that was one consideration, the channel could have been moved to the digital tier. My understanding is one analog channel uses the space of 2 or 3 digital ones.