No more free cable

Confused about why some dorms were getting free cable while others were stuck watching Jeopardy on Saturday nights? Matt Johnson ’07 explains:

The “basic” cable in the dorms consists of the local network channels, C-Span, and like 2 or 3 others. Unless things have changed for the worse, the Butts lounges all have big-screen TVs with extended cable (Comedy Central, Bravo, NESN, ESPN, MTV, etc.)

Fauver and Clark got free cable because when they were built/renovated, Comcast ran lines to them but never installed signal scramblers to deny extended service to those who weren’t paying for it.

This will be no more! All students on campus were recently sent this e-mail regarding spotty cable availability:

“Dear Student

In November I wrote to you about the confusion surrounding inconsistent Cable TV channel lineup on campus which provided expanded channel lineup for some students though we only pay for the Wesleyan Basic Service described in http://www.wesleyan.edu/its/resnet/cabletv.html. To avoid this confusion, Comcast offered all the students the expanded channel lineup until June in return for an audit of all existing cable TV connections and reconfiguration during the summer. This will be completed soon and I am writing to inform you that all cable TV outlets have been reprogrammed to provide only the basic channel lineup. If you are interested in upgrading your service and pay for it, you can contact the Comcast staff during the arrival day or call them at 1-800-COMCAST to sign up for additional services. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact Heric Flores-Rueda (hflores@wesleyan.edu), Manager of Instructional Media Services, ITS.

Ganesan Ravishanker
Associate Vice President for Information Technology”

Marianna Foos ’08 interprets:

Translation: Don’t worry, kids, we got rid of your free cable. You’re welcome.

I guess there’s always Youtube.