Time Warner delays digital switch for McAllen network

McAllen Cable Network, the city government’s public information TV channel, might disappear from older televisions on Oct. 1 unless owners install a special converter box.

Time Warner Cable, trying to squeeze more TV channels and Internet traffic through its lines, wants to digitize channels 12 and 17 to save space. But many TVs purchased before 2005 and all TVs purchased before 1998 will need a converter box to decipher the new digital signal.

These aren’t the same boxes required as of June 2009, when over-the-air TV switched from analog to digital. That transition, also designed to free space for new services, didn’t affect cable or satellite TV.

“A lot of people in McAllen turn to Channel 12 in times of emergency to get information, and this will at a minimum make that more difficult and inconvenient,” said Kevin Pagan, McAllen’s city attorney and emergency management coordinator.

A city attorney sent Time Warner a scathing letter last week, warning the switch would “cause severe harm to the city” and “will result in a severe drop in viewership.”

Time Warner agreed Tuesday to delay the switch from Aug. 5 to Oct 1. But a company spokesman said the switch should be seamless.

Most of the cable provider’s Rio Grande Valley customers already have digital TVs or converter boxes, said Jon Gary Herrera, Time Warner’s Texas regional vice president for communications.

Time Warner will give away converter boxes at no charge to anyone with an older TV — at least at first.

Customers receiving only basic cable will get the box free for five years, Herrera said. Time Warner hasn’t decided if or how much they will be charged after that.

Basic-standard customers will get the converter free for a year. After that, Time Warner will start charging $7.95 a month for the box. Those customers could give the converter back after a year to avoid charges, but public access channels would vanish from their TVs.

Converter boxes will be available at Time Warner offices, and the company will mail converters to people who can’t pick one up. Time Warner will charge $39 if a technician must visit a customer’s house to connect the box. Herrera said just seven customers asked for help when Time Warner digitized public access channels for customers near San Antonio.

Not many people still own analog-only TVs, said Megan Pollock, director of communications for the Consumer Electronics Association, a trade group that represents TV manufacturers, among others.

“Every set sold in the last five years had a digital tuner in it,” Pollock said. “It’s going to be a very small percentage of consumers.”