Time to go all V on Cox's collective ass

[sigma7]

So I watch a little TV -- football, Mythbusters, some Futurama repeats, but nothing too religiously. Except House, for which I will punch out a whole busful of nuns to get to see on time.

Turns out our local monopolistic cable provider, Cox (insert juvenile joke here) Communications, has decided to shake up the lineup (or did they? see bottom), replacing two stations (including Fox affiliate KTMJ) with new stations KSCW (or K-Scow) and KMTW (or K-Monday-Tuesday-Wednesday, as in how long until the masses are engulfed in fury), which are The CW and (buh) MyNetworkTV affiliates, respectively.

Don't pretend you've heard of "MyNetworkTV" before, either. I hadn't, and even after reading the Wiki page I'm still partially convinced this is a bad practical joke. If my TV computer hadn't been insisting House wasn't coming on this week, I'd not have noticed at all.

Interestingly, Googling for any kind of announcement or notification or clarification about this switch with regard to Cox is proving futile. It's almost as if they didn't want to advertise it.

The question is not whether or not someone should pay for this. It's who should, and how bad. I'm thinking homebrew dentistry, and I'll bring the corkscrew and the ballpeen hammer.

(Edit: Huh, interesting. Zap2It, which drives Cox's own listings, has the new KMTW station, but TVGuide.com insists FOX is sticking around. Am I an optimist or a realist here?)

Comments

[kateshort.livejournal.com]

Ah! So *that's* what channel 50 (formerly UPN) has been doing lately. I wondered why there seemed to be new episodes of Fashion House on all week. Of course, I was thinking it was a PBS thing akin to The 1900 House or Prairie House...

As for missing House? There's always BitTorrent. I've used it for the finale of Six Feet Under, a few episodes of ER, this season's premieres of The Amazing Race and Survivor (both of which I finally got to see). I've got a decent computer setup here at home, so while it isn't the bestest, it'll do. And it's niiiiiiice to watch it without commercials. The suckage, as always, is the tendency to GET SPOILERED BY OTHER PEOPLE even when you're trying to avoid it, as it usually takes at least a day for popular stuff like House and TAR to start appearing.

[sigma7.livejournal.com]

Yup, that was the consensus around here -- I'd prefer not to need BitTorrent, as I'd put a lot of time and effort into the TiVo-PC, only to have Cox do this to me again (like back when we had no Sci-Fi or Comedy Central). And what I can't find a Torrent for, I can always find via eMule, but, you know, Christ, I shouldn't need to.

I'm finding this could be a potential cable deal-breaker; if I have to be bothered to download one show, it'd be just as easy to grab all the shows and kick the cable habit completely. And move the TVPC on campus, which'd be sweet. For this price, I should get my hour-long chunk of Hugh Laurie delivered into the living room and not have to hunt it out myself.

[erica-roo.livejournal.com]

Now I know they switched one to CW because of the merger... and that one made me happy... finally Americas Next Top Model...woohoo... sorry...

I doubt that they would be stupid enough to take away Fox. I mean, how stupid would that be? Surely it's wrong..... When will that one take place? It was still Fox tonight.

[sigma7.livejournal.com]

According to Z2I, already. And it's obviously still Fox, so maybe it won't happen. But...well, it wouldn't be unprecedented. (Right now Z2I and the TVPC say it should be The Mark Mangino Show on channel 5 and it's apparently Cheaters, which while amusing is apparently incorrect.)

[querldox.livejournal.com]

Taking away the number 4 network doesn't make any sense to me.

On the other hand, I had heard about "MyNetworkTV", but then I'm an information sponge. While I'm not watching it, it strikes me as an interesting experiment for the former "sixth network" stations (and ones at that level; in San Francisco, it's ended up on Channel 4* rather than the former WB station that lost out to the former UPN station in getting CW affiliation) to do telenovellas with heavy plot and fixed endings. Dunno if it'll succeed due to the low budget nature of the shows and low level of the stations, but it's at least something different (for the gringo audience at least).

*Channel 4 used to be a very powerful San Francisco NBC affiliate. They rather stupidly got into a battle with NBC over show payments, and NBC switched to San Jose's Channel 11. Let's just say that Channel 4 runs a lot of infomercials these days.

[blemt.livejournal.com]

I can't see FOX being gone long. Hello- football season anyone? Not to mention I think they have the World Series this year...or the Super Bowl. Something like that. Don't forget NASCAR.

Yeah, not gonna last long. Stress not. Two weeks of rednecks being unable to get their NEXTEL Cup and all will be well.

[dvandom.livejournal.com]

I coulda sworn My Network was supposed to be digital-only around here?

[sigma7.livejournal.com]

Okay, aside from the fact that you live in a cultural mecca, I'm not surprised you've heard of MyNetworkTV; information sponge, cultural and technological data repository...I see you as an exception to rules on human omniscience or lack thereof.

That said, I do vaguely recall info about the telenovellas debuting on IMDB, and that they had ratings around, er, 1, even if I thought they were on some sort of cable network and not this sixth (gah) network-network.

And how bad do you have to suck as a station to get turned down for being a CW station? That simply has got to hurt.

[sigma7.livejournal.com]

I'm beginning to lean that way -- FOX is still on at last check, and it very well could be an error in the Z2I database. It sure as hell better be, that's all I'm saying.

[dvandom.livejournal.com]

I heard about My Network months ago, through a TV-junkie friend. And I noticed WIBW start flogging it in ads a few weeks ago. And I anticipate starting to care somewhere around the fifth of never. :)

[sigma7.livejournal.com]

This actually does reassure me...I'm trying to imagine the ruckus my family would make if they were denied their NASCAR, and I'm going to sleep well tonight.

[dvandom.livejournal.com]

Yeah, after a one or two day afternoon premier displacing Ellen, WIBW was saying it was going to be taking some of their digital HD space.

[sigma7.livejournal.com]

Excellent. As it should be. I can't imagine people would watch it voluntarily, but at least they'll have that option. *shrug*

[jkgriffin.livejournal.com]

I'd heard of it, but that's only because I actually read a daily newspaper and the PI tv columnist talked about it a few times. I'll be surprised if it lasts 6 months.

Condolences on House.

I understand how you feel about cable. Quite honestly, Netflix is almost better than having cable; you can get full seasons of things and no commercials. In January, when the price of cable goes up to its regular price, I may just dump it again. I would probably save money just buying the Office eps off iTunes.

[daethkow.livejournal.com]

What you are is a call-them-up-and-give-them-the-mother-of-all-customer-service-beatdowns-ist.

Even if it was in error, which I suspect it was, even the appearance of possibly ditching the NFL mid-season is worthy of some choice words with some mouth-breathing phone jockey.