Cities team up against Time Warner

McAllen – Commissioners here agreed Monday night to fight Time Warner Cable’s plan to digitize public access channels, part of a statewide backlash against a move that could leave some people unable to view public access TV.

Time Warner wants to stop transmitting the government channels, including MCN12 in McAllen, with an analog signal and start using a digital signal. The move would free space inside Time Warner’s lines for other programming and services, but would leave owners of older TVs without access to those channels. Some TVs manufactured before 2005 and all TVs manufactured before 1998 would need a converter box to decipher the digital signal, according to the Consumer Electronics Association, a trade group which represents TV manufacturers, among others.

“Those people are citizens just like everybody else, and we have to protect their rights as much as the people who can afford to go out and buy a new TV or do whatever they want to do,” said City Attorney Kevin Pagan.

McAllen, Austin, Waco, Edinburg, Mission, and other cities across Texas will ask Time Warner to cancel the switch or delay it until all other channels become digital, Pagan said. Waiting would reduce the risk viewers would lose access to critical emergency information and other news broadcast on the government channels.

Time Warner will provide converter boxes free for the first year, but will begin charging some customers a monthly fee after that. The customer could give back the converter to avoid the fee, but would also lose access to the digital channels.

A Time Warner spokesman said the company sent out letters to customers about the switch and stressed the move would free space for new HD channels and other services.

“We’re trying to make this as easy as possible for our customers,” said Jon Gary Herrera, Time Warner’s Texas regional vice president for communications. Herrera, reached Monday night, said he wasn’t aware the cities planned to work together to stop or delay the switch.

The mayor and city commissioners discussed the conflict with Time Warner in executive session.

“I do think that if they can, they should wait,” said Commissioner Marcus Barrera.

Time Warner has announced the switch will take place Oct. 1.

Dave Hendricks covers McAllen and general assignments for The Monitor. He can be reached at (956) 683-4452.