Though Internet speeds have improved, and the TV channel line-up is expanding, local Charter Cable customers fear those advances may come at a cost for local news. Charter currently plans to drop local Huntsville stations from the Cullman area line-up on March 13, reversing a trend by the cable system’s previous owner Windjammer, who offered both Birmingham and Huntsville networks to local subscribers.

The new line-up — which also includes some additional stations — was supposed to go live on Jan. 30, but was delayed due to recent inclement weather and damage to infrastructure in other areas of Alabama. The line-up will now go into effect in March, along with the launch of the Charter On Demand video service.

As soon as notifications were sent out to local subscribers over the past few weeks, calls and complaints began pouring into city hall about the line-up change.

“I’ve been getting inundated with calls, and we’ve had more than 40 people reach out to city hall about this,” Cullman risk management director Tom Charney said.

Charney noted most of the local concerns revolve around inclement weather coverage. Considering Cullman’s close proximity to both the Birmingham and Huntsville metro areas, many believe Huntsville offers more relevant weather news for Cullman County, especially for storms systems developing in Tennessee or north Alabama.

“A great majority of Cullman viewers rely on Huntsville channels for weather information when severe weather is threatening,” Charney said. “The mayor and council were very upset and feel that taking off the Huntsville stations could possibly put the citizens of Cullman in danger of not having better weather coverage north of the City of Cullman.”

By law, Charter is allowed to carry stations from the Birmingham metro area exclusively. Cable operators are required to carry some local TV stations (i.e. CBS, NBC, ABC) according to the 1992 Cable Act, which states they must come from an area of dominant influence in that particular city.

Per the FCC, Cullman’s dominant area is Birmingham — which means there is no requirement that would make Charter carry Huntsville stations. The only reason Huntsville stations have been offered in the past is because Windjammer cable opted to do so, before the local cable system was sold to Charter in late 2011.

But, requirement or not, local officials hope Charter will change course and keep the Huntsville stations available for local residents.

“I have been in contact with Charter officials and brought to their attention the concerns of the mayor, council and citizens of the City of Cullman,” Charney said. “On Monday … We were informed that Charter is looking into our concerns and is doing their best to remedy them. [Charter supervisor John] Williamson stated that because it is tornado season Charter will postpone dropping the Huntsville stations … This is great news. At least they are listening.”

The city has requested a Charter representative attend an upcoming council meeting to discuss the issue further, though a potential date has not been set.

When reached Tuesday, Charter spokesperson Kristina Hill said current plans still call for the majority of Huntsville stations to be cut due to available cable bandwidth.

“Wise use of bandwidth is carefully considered and in this instance, a decision was made to remove several local broadcast channels from Huntsville from the enhanced Cullman lineup,” Hill said via e-mail. “Another factor was Cullman’s designation by the Federal Communications Commission as part of the Birmingham DMA (designated market area). The new channel lineup in Cullman will be similar to the lineup offered to Charter customers in adjacent markets also in the Birmingham DMA.”

But, a deal has been reached to keep Huntsville-based NBC affiliate WAFF available in Cullman. It would likely be the only Huntsville network to remain.

“We know that some of our customers want to receive their news and weather from Huntsville and the enhanced Cullman channel lineup scheduled to launch on March 13 will feature local broadcast channels from Birmingham and Huntsville,” she said. “WAFF regularly reports news from Cullman and has one of the most advanced weather radar systems in the state of Alabama. We are confident that as our customers become familiar with the new lineup when it launches, they will enjoy the additional products and services coming to the area. We are grateful to our customers for their patience as we work to fully transition their services and are happy to answer any questions about the new lineup.”

The company does not make a local number available for contact, though the main customer service line can be reached at 1-888-438-2427. The local Charter office is also open on U.S. Highway 278.

 

For more background on Charter’s purchase of Windjammer cable, check out these past articles:

* Charter buyout of Windjammer a done deal (Dec. 4, 2011) 

* Charter Cable transition continues (Jan. 23, 2012) 

* Trent Moore can be reached by e-mail at trentm@cullmantimes.com, or by telephone at 734-2131, ext. 220.