By Theresa Armstrong

Reporter

tdunn@gcnewsgazette.com

Comcast has announced improvements coming to Grayson County customers beginning Wednesday, April 23.

On Saturday, April 19, Comcast officials were on hand at the Centre on Main to give customers a glimpse of the upcoming changes that will be available on Wednesday.

Comcast will connect the Leitchfield/Clarkson cable system to the Elizabethtown cable system. This will allow Comcast to offer advanced communication products and services such as ON DEMAND features, the Sports Entertainment Pack, High-Definition Television, more digital channels and the Family Tier.

There will be more channels added to the local lineup, WKMJ (KET2), WKYT (CBS), BET, EWTN, Fox Sports Ohio, Univision, Fox Business Network and the Sportsman Channel.

Comcast Digital and On Demand services are part of the digital services which will revolutionize the way customers will watch television.

“Comcast has announced Project Infinity, which plans to give customers the ability to watch any movie, TV show, user-generated content or other video that a producer wants to make available on demand.” said Comcast General Manager Tim Hagan. “Project Infinity is a logical extension of Comcast’s television online content strategy.”

With the On Demand service a customer can chose from thousands of hours of movies and shows and watch them when, as well as how, often they want for up to 24 hours. With he digital remote control a show can be paused, rewound, fast-forwarded or stopped and resumed at the viewers convenient. This makes viewing televisions shows and movies more convenient than purchasing a video from a video store.

The high definition television (HDTV) technology provides video and audio that is clearer and sharper than traditional analog television. HBO, Cinamax, Starz will be offered in High Definition in addition to the traditional channels.

Comcast will make several channel changes to the television lineup, ABC family will move from 20 to 17; CSPAN will move from 40 to 21; CSPAN 2, from 68 to 22; TBS, from 19 to 15 and the Weather Channel from 33 to 20, and MSNBC will move from 42 to 185.

The Sports Entertainment Pack will offer a variety of sports channels such as the NFL Network, TVG Horseracing, Fox Sports Atlantic, Fox College Sports Channel and several other sports channels.

The Family Tier is a package service that is generally considered family-friendly and can be used in conjunction with parental controls available with a digital converter, giving parents additional ability to manage viewing options within the home. A digital converter, remote control and limited basic service are required for each outlet receiving Family Tier.

“Another way Comcast has created more value for its customers is with the enhancements to the internet services,” said Hagan.

Download speed is up to three times faster than 768K DSL, up to 50 times faster than 56K dial-up giving internet customers up to seven email accounts from any PC with internet access.

Hagan said the broadcastrer’ change over from analog to digital service that will occur the beginning of next year should have no impact on Comcast customers.

“Because they are connected to cable, our customers will continue to receive broadcast channels without interruption after the digital broadcast transition,” said Hagan. “We will deliver broadcast signals digitally and we will convert the new broadcast digital signals back into analog signals at our headends so that customers who do not have or want a digital box or new television will continue to receive the channels in the same way they receive them today without having to do anything.”