By Matt Clyburn
CCSU will be debuting a new cable provider this week that will allow students to access more content at a lower cost to the university. The new provider will bring expanded programming options to “Blue TV” and allow for greater flexibility in programming selection from term to term.
“We went out to bid back in the fall to look at alternative cable providers because our contract with the existing provider, which happened to be Comcast, was coming due first of the year,” Chad Valk, digital media production coordinator, said Monday. “In doing so we received bids back from both Comcast and another company called Campus TeleVideo, which we ultimately chose as our new provider.”
“CTV is a company that concentrates solely on higher education institutions, that’s the focus of what they do,” Valk said. “They were able to bring in services to us at a better price with more flexibility and more varied channel packages that I think the students are going to like.”
Campus TeleVideo, or CTV, is a Greenwich-based company founded in 1984 that provides satellite-delivered cable television. According to CTV’s website, the company is the nation’s leading provider of television and telecommunication services to colleges and universities with a presence at more than 220 of our nation’s higher education institutions.
While most national cable providers only group channels together in large packages, CTV allows campuses and student preferences to determine the individual channels they like to watch. CCSU will even have the ability to change the packages over time as student interests change.
“In order to increase channels beyond the normal lineup Comcast gives to the community, and say, pull down ‘X, Y, Z’ channels, we had to go into a large package of another 100 or so channels,” Valk said. “We have the flexibility with CTV to more easily swap channels – if student interests change in the future, we have the ability to swap those in the contract much easier than we did with Comcast.”
“What we were able to do is construct a lineup similar in size to what we had with Comcast as a bulk agreement but populate it with the channels that the students indicated they had more of an interest in. We’re bringing on board…approximately 20 channels that are geared towards the channels that the students wanted,” said Valk.
Those new channels include another feature unique to CTV, a package of eight international networks that will be broadcast into student residences once the change goes into effect.
Many campus residents have been critical of residential and business cable provider Comcast for poor video quality, lackluster customer service and service delivery issues in the dormitories. Sophomore communication major Tim Farrell lives in Vance Hall and was overjoyed at the change.
“Thank God,” Farrell said, “Comcast is terrible, my room has horrible reception on the television and I’ve had fuzzy picture for I don’t know how long.”
CTV has edged out Comcast on many college campuses across the state. Along with the University of Connecticut, CTV serves WCSU, Trinity College and Sacred Heart University.
Valk cited feedback from residents that there were issues with trying to get technicians in and out to do service calls in the past.
“Comcast is a very large company and the way they tend to handle service on a residential level doesn’t fit as well over here on our campus,” said Valk.
“To go digital in any way, a full digital system would require the use of individual set-top boxes; they are extraordinarily expensive, they could become a large security and damage assessment issue in the rooms. Residence Life was against that from the get-go,” said Valk.
Information Technology also consulted with other college campuses that had experimented with the cable boxes and found dissatisfaction “across the board.”
The changeover to Blue TV will be almost entirely automated and requires very little installation from students. However, Information Technology has asked students to plan on auto-scanning or re-scanning their televisions in the “Cable TV” mode so that they can access all of the new programming. Most residents can plan on performing this function after they return from the long weekend on Feb. 22, though some students will see the change take place on Thursday.
“It will be a transparent change,” Valk said. “If they were to just turn their TVs on, they probably will get 60 or 70 percent of the cable services, they’re just not going to be on the channel positions that they’re used to and they will be missing a good handful of them. A quick [auto-scan] will allow them to not only get all of the new channel placements, but pick up any of the new networks we’ve launched.”
New channels are being added to the residence hall lineup, including National Geographic and a host of movie options. Blue TV will play host to HBO, HBO2, HBO Signature and for the first time the campus will have the Showtime service with Showtime and Showtime2. The HBO suite will be delayed one week and will become available March 1, a result of HBO’s contracting practices with all cable providers.
“We’re also launching a whole hodgepodge of sports networks – ESPNews, ESPNU, CBS College Sports, one channel dedicated to both NFL and MLB networks which will be switched between seasons,” Valk said.
Students will still see all of their local channels in addition to their digital counterparts. For example, NBC Connecticut offers its main content on 30.1 and offers additional digital channels 30.2 for 24-hour weather coverage and 30.3 for Universal Sports. High definition programming that is currently available over the air will still be accessible, but regular cable channels will be offered in standard definition only.
Additional information and announcements can be found on the Information Technology weekly announcement later this week, the IT website and the CCSU TV Facebook page. If students experience any problems with the transition, they can contact residence assistants and residence directors as each hall will have information on troubleshooting and appropriate contact information for technical support.
A complete listing for ‘Blue TV’ is available on CCSU’s website.