talking about the Packers...

[RLJSlick]

....have anyone heard the latest about Time Warner and ESPN HD?  I can find very little about whats going on there. Any idea?  Football is almost here. :mad:

Ricky

[MathWiz579]

When I signed up for TWC service they told me they were expecting ESPN HD by the end of the year at the latest.

[Paul S.]

Originally posted by MathWiz579
When I signed up for TWC service they told me they were expecting ESPN HD by the end of the year at the latest.

Huh..thats what they said last year! :rofl:

[Matt Heebner]

I read an interview with TWC head honcho on AVS Forum, and it doesn't look like TWC is gonna get ESPN-HD any time soon. Basically Disney wants multi-channel carriage contract renewals with TWC for big bucks before it will let TWC carry ESPN-HD. This is for ALL the Disney channels that TWC carries including all the ABC's, Disney channels, etc.

The TWC head said that they felt passing on that extra cost to the consumer was not in thier best interest.

Here is a reprint from a letter from an AVS Forum member to a TWC VP:
_________________________________________________
My letter:
Mr. Dressler,

I am a customer of Time Warner Cable in the Kansas City area. I'm a self-proclaimed "tech geek" and very excited about innovative new technologies and the recent speed of growth of HDTV. While I am generally very happy with the offerings and service of Time Warner, I'm disappointed and surprised at the inability of Time Warner to come to an agreement to carry ESPN-HD in particular. I understand this is an issue at the corporate level and not a local one.

While I sympathize with Time Warner's fight to keep carriage fees - and thus our cable bills - low, I have difficulty understanding why an agreement hasn't been reached after nearly 1 1/2 years after ESPN-HD signed on. The availability of this channel is very important to me, and I'm growing very frustrated with the lack of progress. It's also disappointing to have no news about the progress coming from my local provider. Every other cable company, including one competitor in my area, has been able to come up with an agreement to carry ESPN-HD, yet there's no progress with Time Warner. I'm already subscribed to an HDTV tier and am willing to pay for quality offerings. I've been patient, but waited a very long time. Since ESPN-HD now has much more HD programming available than when it launched, I feel as though I'm missing out more every day. This is important enough to me that I'm considering changing carriers, either to the cable competitor or a satellite provider. This is disappointing to me, because otherwise, I couldn't be happier with Time Warner's services.

I just wanted to voice my concern and see if you could provide any insight as to what the problem is and if/when we can expect ESPN-HD or other high definition choices to be available. I'm quite certain I'm not your only customer in this dilemma. I would appreciate it if you could respond.

Thank you for your time.

Respectfully,


Overland Park, KS



His response:
Thanks for your interest in our services and your continued support. Please understand that we are more frustrated than you about the ESPN-HD situation. ESPN simply REFUSES to sell us this product unless and until we renew every other contract we have with the entire Disney company. We are working on this diligently, but we cannot seem to make it go any faster. We will continue to try to get you ESPN HD as soon as possible and hope you will stick with us in the meantime. While other distributors may currently be offering ESPN HD, I don't believe anyone else has more or better HD product than time warner cable.
________________________________________________

Sorry.
Matt

[RLJSlick]

Yeah I got a Email like that a few months ago, basicly saying the same thing. I really do think TW is doing everything they can to get ESPN-HD, but thats still not getting ESPN-HD for us, and personly 75% of the reason I  got a big screen HDTV,  is to get ESPN-HD.  I guess, like TW, I will have to make a hard choice soon.

Ricky