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THE SUNCOAST NEWS

Published: October 10, 2007

A bit of a battle between the populist impulse and the march of technological is afoot in Pasco County. This is one of those fights that sooner rather than later is going to look more than a little silly.

In dispute is the plan by the dominant provider of cable TV service in West Pasco, Bright House Networks, to realign some of its channels. Specifically, it wants to move the channel over which Pasco County, the city of New Port Richey and the Pasco School District offer programs to the public, including public safety information. These three channels would move from Bright House's low-cost, analog service tier to a tier requiring a digital convertor, at a cost of $1 extra a month, to access.

County Administrator John Gallagher has asked Bright House officials to attend an Oct. 15 summit on the channel change plan. An aide says state Sen. Mike Fasano plans to attend as well. Local governments lost the power to block the channel change when legislation shifting control over cable TV from counties and cities to the state took effect.

The Pasco officials are concerned some Bright House subscribers won't pay the added $12 a year to switch to the digital converter and will lose access to the government and school programming. But there are already a number of diehards who won't pay anything for television service and don't have access to that programming now.

Verizon is slowly introducing its FiOS TV service as a competitor to Bright House. So, maybe Bright House should waive the extra $1-a-month fee for digital converters to existing subscribers as a PR gesture.

If Bright House sticks to its guns, however, we suspect the practical impact will be small. When it comes to technology, there is always change and adaptation. Remember: As of 2009 there won't be any nonhigh-definition digital TV signals to receive.

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