GOP Plot?: Comcast Pulls MSNBC From Standard Cable in Boston Area
No Longer a Viewing Option
As a left-leaning political junkie, MSNBC constitutes my sustenance, my entertainment, and my candy, especially during election cycles. As the only network with progressive commentary (i.e. Keith Olbermann on Countdown), along with other entertaining, informative, and engaging programming, to include Joe Scarborough’s Cup of Joe, Dan Abram’s Verdict, and Chris Matthews’ Hardball, MSNBC is literally the only channel that my wife and I watch together on TV (I also watch football during season and occassionally some Comedy Central stuff before going to bed).
As parents of a two-year old, watching Chris and Keith during the primaries was not only our source of information and news, but it was also our entertainment - our little guilty pleasure that we shared together. We felt like we knew Chris Matthews (my wife did meet and interview him during the making of our documentary film, Swing State Ohio, during the Presidential Election in 2004), and watching his show, along with the others was familiar, comforting, and relaxing. We even liked MSNBC featured conservatives Tucker Carlson, Joe Scarborough, and even Pat Buchanon, because they are all charming, wildly intelligent, and provided their views in a fair and reasoned manner.
So given our affection for this network, this lonely island in a sea of mindless wing-nuttery and mediocrity, we were shocked, dismayed, and disgusted when found out that our beloved MSNBC was being moved from standard cable to the “Digital Tier” on Comcast in the Boston area.
Thanks to the “magic of the internet” I did some looking around and found that this was happening all over the country. I found the timing to be odd, considering this network is 99% dedicated to political programming (besides their disturbing late-night prison documentary series “Lock Up”), and we are fewer than 100 days away from a kinda important political event. I also found it odd that among the cable news channels, only MSNBC, the “left-leaning” channel, was tapped to move to the digital tier, forcing its customers to cough up extra cash for the extra service.
Some further digging ensued and the Monkey and I found a comment on a blog that seemed to provide some explanation from Comcast (bold added by me):
This is Shawn Feddeman from Comcast in Boston and I wanted to address your posting about some recent channel changes we have made locally.
As you mention, Comcast did in fact move MSNBC and several other channels (what other channels?) to our digital lineup this week. This is not a more expensive tier of service, but it does require a digital cable box (which is more expensive). Most of our customers in the area aren’t impacted by these moves because they already have digital cable service. However, for the analog customers who want to continue watching MSNBC and the other channels, we are offering them a free cable box for a year (after which you will have to pay for it, proving that it is more expensive).
We made these changes to our lineup so that we could launch more HD programming - which our customers have been asking for (what, just the progressives were asking for it? - no conservatives want to see O’Reilly in HD?). In the coming weeks, we will be adding many new HD networks o respond to the demand.
Finally, I would also like to point out that there were absolutely no political motivations behind the recent channel moves. (Except for one little thing which you will find out by reading below). We have been communicating with our analog customers about these programming changes for more than a month through postcards, e-mails, calls, channel crawls and more to ensure they knew about the changes. Thanks for letting me clarify.
First of all, Shawn Feddeman is not correct about this tier not being more expensive. Many people have standard cable; digital cable costs about $40 more per month. In addition, many people (like me) also get standard cable paid for with our condo fees. In order to upgrade to digital I would have to buy my own service, an additional cost on top of my condo fees.
But I do have a question for Ms. Feddeman regarding Comcast’s motivations behind making this change: If you want to provide more HD programming, why didn’t you tap FoxNews for HD broadcast? Wouldn’t FoxNews viewers appreciate seeing their right-wing blowhards in full digital glory?
And finally, Ms. Feddeman asserts that there is no “political motivation” behind the decision to pull the left-leaning channel from the standard lineup. That would be a lot easier to believe if there wasn’t one little interesting tidbit about Ms. Feddeman’s employment prior to running the PR shop at Comcast.
Shawn Feddeman a Former GOP Operative
Former Romney Spokeswoman Feddeman
Through the “magic of the internet,” I discovered that Shawn Feddeman served as Governor Mitt Romney’s Press Secretary prior to working for Comcast. Obviously she is a Republican who was at one time actively involved in politics, working for a future Republican presidential candidate. It just doesn’t pass the sniff test that there were no political motivations in this decision. Her credentials alone indicate that certainly politics played a role in this decision to move MSNBC off basic cable.
My wife is considering poneying up for the digital tier but my intention right now is to boycott that move out of principle. I know in a way I’ll just be punishing myself, as I won’t have my favorite channel during what will be a historic and exciting Presidential campaign. I plan on writing a letter to Shawn Feddeman and will provide updates on the situation in these pages at Monkeyinmymind.com.
August 5th, 2008 at 10:01 pm
Hi Paul. Jim Hughes from Comcast’s Boston office here. As a fan of Hardball and Countdown myself, I can tell you for sure that this was not about politics — it was about ensuring that our network is able to deliver the maximum benefit to the maximum number of customers. And as you may have seen in the press, we’ve already started delivering the benefits — we announced the launch of seven new HD channels here in Mass. — Disney HD, ABC Family HD, TLC HD, AMC HD, Science Channel HD, TMC (The Movie Channel) HD and Showtime 2 HD — last week, and more are on the way. A single analog channel takes up as much space on our network as 10 digital channels, or 3 HD channels, and this change is allowing us to strike an appropriate balance between our analog and digital offerings. As for the price issue you bring up, you’re right — digital cable service requires a box-rental fee. This is the fee that we waived for a year for affected customers. And while other TV providers here and elsewhere in the country are seeing the growing consumer preference for digital TV and dropping analog service altogether, we are committed to delivering a low-cost analog option for our remaining customers who want it.
August 6th, 2008 at 10:28 am
Hi Jim,
Thanks for reading and writing in to Monkeyinmymind.com.
While I appreciate you laying out Comcast’s plans to deliver more HD programming, and also explaining how analog channels occupy more “space” than their digital counterparts, your response still doesn’t quite answer exactly why MSNBC was chosen out of all the cable news channels to be ejected from analog into digital-only format.
To provide some context to this issue, I am aware that if one receives a digital programming package, one still generally receives access to analog versions of those digital programs (now excepting MSNBC, of course). For example, I was over at another Comcast subscriber’s home this weekend and noticed that while they had access to ESPN HD, HBO HD, and CNN HD, this person still had access to the analog versions of those channels. Why doesn’t this hold true for MSNBC?
I love the picture and quality of HD programming as much as anyone else, but I wasn’t aware that this was a “choose or lose” proposition when it comes to mainstays on the cable programming spectrum like MSNBC. As of today (and until February 17, 2009), the default television format is not yet digital so consumers like myself and many thousands of others shouldn’t be forced into converting to digital prematurely.
To that end, I was hoping you could provide additional clarity on the following questions:
1) What other channels besides MSNBC were removed from analog format in order to be digital only (I haven’t noticed anything else missing from the lineup)?
2) What type of Nielsen ratings did these other channels earn?
3) If Comcast’s motivation was not political, but instead to “ensur[e] that [y]our network is able to deliver the maximum benefit to the maximum number of customers,” why do CNN, FoxNews, and CNBC remain available in analog format?
This move smacks as a double standard, especially when one compares the ratings that each of these channels earn. Please note the following ratings numbers over this last weekend, comparing all of the cable news networks:
You will notice that while MSNBC trails FoxNews and CNN (only slightly) in one demographic, it outperforms Fox and CNN in the 25-54 demographic, and outperforms CNBC in all demographics.
Live + Same Day Weekend Ratings
Cable News Ratings August 2, 2008
P2+ Total Day
FNC – 699,000 viewers
CNN – 467,000 viewers
MSNBC – 420,000 viewers
CNBC – 132,000 viewers
HLN – 263,000 viewers
P2+ Prime Time
FNC – 1,033,000 viewers
CNN – 657,000 viewers
MSNBC – 548,000 viewers
CNBC – 262,000 viewers
HLN – 270,000 viewers
25-54 Total Day
FNC – 169,000 viewers
CNN – 145,000 viewers
MSNBC – 213,000 viewers
CNBC – 68,000 viewers
HLN – 103,000 viewers
25-54 Prime Time
FNC – 178,000 viewers
CNN – 167,000 viewers
MSNBC – 288,000 viewers
CNBC – 134,000 viewers
HLN – 101,000 viewers
Again, thanks for your forthright answers.
In order for many of us to believe that this decision was NOT politically motivated, answers to questions like mine would be sincerely appreciated.
August 6th, 2008 at 11:02 am
[...] monkeyinmymind.com quiet the monkey. live a better life. « GOP Plot?: Comcast Pulls MSNBC From Standard Cable in Boston Area [...]
August 7th, 2008 at 9:01 pm
The fact that Shawn Feddeman was Mitt Romney’s press secretary explains it all, doesn’t it? The far right wing doesn’t do ANYTHING that isn’t politically motivated. Thanks for offering that bit of info.
August 13th, 2008 at 11:05 am
[...] the addition of my new penpal and frequent blog commenter, Jim Hughes of Comcast. Since I posted my first comment on Comcast’s decision to pull MSNBC from its Standard lineup in the Boston area, Jim has been [...]
August 24th, 2008 at 1:43 pm
I’m to the right and I’m in your area and actually I kinda like msnbc…the format that they have is different and doesn’t seem more of the alert thing that cnn does or fox does.
“For example, I was over at another Comcast subscriber’s home this weekend and noticed that while they had access to ESPN HD, HBO HD, and CNN HD, this person still had access to the analog versions of those channels. Why doesn’t this hold true for MSNBC?”
Because there’s no plans for a MSNBC in HD. The ratings aren’t there. You are confusing HDTV with digital cable there’s a difference.
“I love the picture and quality of HD programming as much as anyone else, but I wasn’t aware that this was a “choose or lose” proposition when it comes to mainstays on the cable programming spectrum like MSNBC. As of today (and until February 17, 2009), the default television format is not yet digital so consumers like myself and many thousands of others shouldn’t be forced into converting to digital prematurely.”
That’s the default for over the air tv…not digital cable or analog cable. There’s quite a bit of confusion that companies are trying to imply. I personally walked out of a circuit city because they tried to tell me that over the air hdtv did not exist!
“3) If Comcast’s motivation was not political, but instead to “ensur[e] that [y]our network is able to deliver the maximum benefit to the maximum number of customers,” why do CNN, FoxNews, and CNBC remain available in analog format?”
That’s because the content producer hasn’t made a hdtv version of msnbc. CNBC is getting competition now with the fox business channel and also from bloomberg (which also was moved onto the digital cable) CNN used to compete with cnnfn but it was dropped because the ratings were so low. MSNBC’s ratings are pretty low so NBC which controls both msnbc and cnbc is putting the station on a lower rung.
This move smacks as a double standard, especially when one compares the ratings that each of these channels earn. Please note the following ratings numbers over this last weekend, comparing all of the cable news networks:
You will notice that while MSNBC trails FoxNews and CNN (only slightly) in one demographic, it outperforms Fox and CNN in the 25-54 demographic, and outperforms CNBC in all demographics.
http://www.heraldnews.com/entertainment/x1346882663/Comcast-phasing-out-its-analog-television-stations
EWTN was dropped to go the digital, court tv, oxygen, boston catholic television…these were the ones in my area.
There’s plenty of liberal television out there though…Current I find to be liberal and if you do get a HDTV the PBS world is actually pretty good.
In a nutshell let me sort of explain a bit of the industry. the cable industry didn’t take satellite seriously until the mid 90’s dispite the fact that they get programming from dishes. analog cable vs satellite there’s no dispute that satellite wins. so they created digital cable which gives just about the same picture. Anything satellite can do cable can do…but it clearly costs more money! So from the cable companies perspective people are getting some hdtv but there’s still some on regular analog. The space of one analog I think they can get three hdtv channels. So that msnbc analog might have been dropped to say add A&E, FUSE, IFC, Oxygen etc in hd. I’ve gained maybe eight or so stations in the past few months and lost about five or so analog.
What companies are hoping for is that some might be scared and just get a hdtv this holiday season and that pretty much nullifies analog cable.
If I were you though I’d be more angry on where the market is going for the cable access. Cable access is the only way for some to broadcast to their locality. If analog eventually dies out there’s no digital segment to pick it up.
Supposedly in plymouth if you just wanted to get cable analog isn’t even offered anymore it’s just digital. If you were grandfathered in that’s fine but everyone is on the digital. Years ago they dropped the pay per views and dropped the pay channels. So gradually they are taking away either things very popular or unpopular. If there’s a hd version they’ll drop it…if it’s not in hd they’ll still drop it…all to make room.
August 25th, 2008 at 6:55 am
Thanks for reading and thanks for your perspective and insight on this whole thing.
My hope is for one day to have “a la carte” programming, in which subscribers will be able to pick out the channels they want to see and discard the rest.
I personally watch just a handful of stations and have no use for the other 100.
All the best,
Paul
http://Www.monkeyinmymind.com
August 26th, 2008 at 8:49 pm
I don’t watch MSNBC very often, but I just wanted to watch Countdown, for Keith Olbermann’s coverage of the DNC and I just went through the guide about five times, looking for that channel. Then a google search trying to find out which channel MSNBC is in Bosto brought me here.
I can’t believe Comcast would pull MSNBC. WTF? Even Jim’s explanation there doesn’t explain it well enough. They should have pulled another channel.
August 27th, 2008 at 6:47 am
I couldn’t agree with you more, JoMaMa! Jim Hughes is a nice enough guy to respond to my queries but the answers amount to little more than circumlocution. If you look at the next couple of posts, I followed up with him and asked him directly why FoxNews and CNN remained on cable and he didn’t have a real answer.
I do want to add one thing, though…I also reached about to about a half dozen people at MSNBC to see what their view of the situation is and they are oddly silent. Perhaps they don’t want to damage a business relationship? Or perhaps this is some kind of money thing for them. Whatever the case, none of the answers are adequate so I think one can assume some kind of collusion between MSNBC and Comcast.
Check this post here: MSNBC to Digital Tier on Comcast: Conspiracy or Cash Grab
Pavler
August 28th, 2008 at 6:05 pm
While I understand Mr Hughes argument about digital vs analog bandwidth, there is one other thing to note:
If you have a CableCard system (like a TivoHD) then you automatically get a bunch of digital channels as part of “Standard Cable”. The CableCard allows you to get digital channels without renting a box from Comcast. However, you don’t get MSNBC. You have to pay extra for their “Digital Starter” package.
If this move was simply a matter of analog vs digital bandwidth savings, why also put the channel in a tier that prevents many customers with digital tuners from receiving it? I am left very concerned that this move, done in a critical election year, was politically motivated. Not a pleasant thought for democracy.
August 30th, 2008 at 6:20 am
I couldn’t agree with you more, Eric, and thanks for writing in. There is something missing here in the explanations as to why this happened.
It is also important to note that MSNBC themselves are notably silent on the issue as well. I sent over a half dozen emails to several different outlets within the network and received no responses. I discussed the notion that MSNBC may be “in” on the move in a separate blog post here.
I do think it’s political but it’s also one of those times when politics may coincide with economic advantage. Perhaps in someway MSNBC is making more money with this arrangement, similar to the NFL Network’s demand for higher fees, which resulted in it being jettisoned from basic cable as well.
Again, great to hear your comments!
October 22nd, 2008 at 11:06 pm
Good post, thanks Monkey. I’m having a suspicious Comcast/MSNBC experience that I haven’t seen reported anywhere else. I have a digital cable box and a “Digital Classic” subscription package and I can’t get MSNBC either on its original analog channel or its new digital channel. After two calls to customer support, I got the representative to agree that I had the equipment and the subscription that I needed to get MSNBC, but wasn’t getting it for some reason. The representative suspects a faulty cable box, but I get all of the other analog and digital channels that I’m paying for, as far as I can tell. I don’t think I’m important enough to be specifically targeted by this vast right-wing conspiracy, so I’d be curious to hear if anyone else is having this problem.
- Patrick
(Cambridge, MA)
October 23rd, 2008 at 7:46 am
That is absolutely fascinating, and thanks for commenting, Patrick.
This is first case I have heard of like this…have you been able to resolve it?
I recently moved and purposely chose not to go with Comcast for my cable service. Instead, Verizon FIOS was in my area and I am now happily receiving MSNBC without having to pay Comcast for it.
I did a quick search for FIOS in Cambridge and it may not be available. You can go to their website here and punch in your address to verify. Even if it’s not available, I’d still call and threaten to quit the service unless they restore full accessibility to all of the available channels, including MSNBC.
Keep us posted!
November 3rd, 2008 at 9:14 pm
I just happened on this, after finally having time to call Comcast to ask why the MSNBC channel changed and then disappeared from the bedroom television that has no digital box. Imagine my surprise to find that Comcast is disgustingly political (instead of just incompetent and greedy). If the Democrats get back into office, they had better return the telecommunications industry/FCC back to competitive status. The idea that I have no other alternative but Comcast is, um, I think they call it unAmerican and am, communist - or is it fascist? What happened to healthy competition? As it is, Comcast can do whatever it wants to do and reap profits so high that even they don’t know what to do with. I will move next summer. I will only choose a place that offers an alternative to Comcast. Any alternative.
Has anyone contacted MSNBC about this? Elected official? Wednesday would be a good day to start that…