I received a note or two today suggesting that a cable company axed EWTN.
Anyone having a hard time getting it?
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My daughter in S.E. Mass. says she cannot get it. I don’t have the details. I’ll ask her tomorrow.
I don’t have cable at home, but I was staying in a hotel somewhere in Oklahoma a few years back, and they didn’t have EWTN, though it was on their list of channels. I asked morning and the day manager said it had been cut recently (then) from the local cable system.
I’m in school in Chicago, and it’s not offered in our cable package in the university housing…. though most other standard cable channels are (excluding my other favorite cable channel, Food Network). So when I really want to watch something, I’ve just been livestreaming it from the internet.
At home in the suburbs, EWTN is also no longer available from the standard cable we get from Comcast, you can only get it if you have at least the first-tier upgrade.
I tried to send an email requesting ewtn here at school, but never got a reply!
In order to get EWTN in SE Massachusetts you have to have digital cable with the box.
I think I read in the NCRegister last year that people lost EWTN when the company switched to digital cable. I think you have to get the digital box to get it back. And there is this from St. Louis Catholic: http://stlouiscatholic.blogspot.com/2010/03/charter-cable-and-ewtn.html
Apologies. It was not in the Register, it was in the local paper at my mother-in-law’s house in Western Massachusetts where the cable company did this last summer. You had to upgrade to digital to get EWTN there, too.
I’m in eastern Iowa, and I lost EWTN when Mediacom went digital like JGR mentioned.
Comcast, which owns dozens of cable systems in Illinois, moved EWTN to the digital category more than a year ago, maybe longer.
Same with Charter cable in Tennessee, where Charter moved EWTN to a digital channel requiring a special box. Charter told callers that this was at the request of EWTN. EWTN told callers that nothing could be further from the truth.
I have Comcast. Originally, when I moved in, EWTN seemed otherwise inaccessible; even tuning the cable box to the (supposedly) correct channel did not find EWTN. After getting fed up with the speed of the cable box, I reconnected my TV directly, and rescanned the channels. My TV has a digital tuner, and as such, it found basically all the channels I was supposed to have, and at the very least the ones I wanted (EWTN included).
Same thing happened with Charter in the Brainerd area in Minnesota, a seperate charge of 5.95 for rent of the special box. You cannot have just EWTN, but is extra with the basic pkg.
Charter changed the line up of our cable…they removed EWTN…and upped our rates. I called them. They said for $5 more a month I could have it back. I said no, I went to satellite dish. They called back and still really didn’t give a rip but wanted me to purchase cable for a backup. They didn’t listen or care. I remember things like that and take action.
Here in Kansas our stupid cable company cut all of the religious channels which we previously got and insisted that you upgrade to digital cable w/ cable box to get them. I was furious at losing EWTN, since then I have just watched online.
Yes. People in Southern IL and STL Metro woke up and found EWTN missing from their basic cable line up from Charter Cable. It was moved to the digital tier, channel 152. [We happen to get digital in a package w/broadband.]
The cable company in Northern Va had EWTN on a digital tier as well–or at least I recall it was hard to find in the 200s.
Insight Communications in the Evansville, IN market has EWTN as a basic cable channel; while in the Louisville market one has to have digital cable to view it. I am told this is because of the interfaith cable channel that is managed by the Archdiocese of Louisville. That channel will run segments from EWTN, but mostly shows Protestant programming and paid commercial programs.
Isn’t it nice since the cable companies get the EWTN signal free of charge!
I don’t have TV since it went digital last year, so I watch it online when I’m at the library or at the local Barnes & Noble.
And even when I did have TV, I just had ‘regular’ analog channels-never had cable or satellite because I’d have to pay for it. And I don’t have Internet at home either.
By ‘it’ I meant EWTN-my bad.
That’s what happens when I’m typing on the computer and listening to a CD at the same time. Can’t do two things at once….sigh….
I have not had cable nor satellite dish for over a decade. It is pretty easy to watch EWTN over the Internet from their website. The best thing is you can watch and make a donation so you money goes straight to EWTN and not to Comcast or some similar outfit.
For many cable customers who have lost EWTN via ANALOG channels (usually somehwere between channel 2 and 69) it most likely is now on a digital tier. Many cable companies will offer this channel UNENCRYPTED. ETWN can even demand that this channel be unencrypted. If you have a newer TV that has built in QAM digital capabilities then you can receive unencrypted digital channels from most cable companies without a cable box.
Charter in my area removed EWTN via analog cable, but I can receive it just fine via unencrypted digital cable on channel 83.6. You can see most of the channels that you can receive via unencrypted QAM here: http://www.silicondust.com/hdhomerun/channels
Make sure to change the drop down menu to your local cable provider.
If you don’t have a newer TV with a QAM tuner built-in then you will need to rent the cable box or you can purchase one at Best Buy, Amazon, etc. to receive the clear QAM channels.
I used to be able to watch EWTN as part of my ‘basic cable’ service here in Northfield, MN. Then it disappeared–it was moved up to some higher channel number and could no longer be viewed as part of the basic service. I cancelled the service. I phoned the company to explain that I was cancelling because of what they did with EWTN, but their customer service people lack basic English comprehension skills, so I don’t think that my call did any good.
My parents live in Toronto, Canada, and EWTN disappeared from their cable service as well. It used to be right next to a gay lifestyle channel, but then even that ‘privilege’ was revoked. Now my parents would have to pay extra for EWTN even though they have the most comprehensive (and expensive) cable package available.
There is definitely an agenda at work here. But the cable companies are losing their monopoly on television programming. Most TV shows are available online anyway, either through hulu (my personal favorite) or through the TV station web sites. Unfortunately, EWTN’s online streaming is not very high quality. I wonder–could they could make their shows available on hulu?
Charter Communications bumped EWTN off analog and moved it to digital channel 152. This is NOT because EWTN requested it. This affects lower income and senior citizens who do not have, nor want, digital service. I just got off the phone with Charter to complain. According to the man I spoke to, Robert, they are “moving stations off analog to free up bandwidth to provide better service.” I told him this move did not improve my service, but the opposite. Eventually they will move all stations to digital. I asked why EWTN was chosen for this move and they couldn’t give me an answer. I asked if VH1 and MTV were still on analog and they said yes. I suggested that they might want to move stations targeted to younger, technologically savvy consumers first, and leave stations, like EWTN on analog until the last possible moment. I pleaded with him NOT to move Fox Sports Midwest because if my mom loses EWTN AND the Cardinals, I don’t know what will happen! He said that wouldn’t happen for a while–so essentially EWTN is moved because they think they can get away with it.
To politely complain, call 314-965-0555, ask for Programming Upgrade, then press 1 and you’ll hopefully speak with someone in St. Louis, not a technician in another country.
Or send an email to General Manager Steve Trippe: stevegm@chartercom.com
Peggy,
I live just an hour from St. Louis and we still have EWTN on our Charter Cable, it is channel 23. It’s almost on permanent rotation here at my house.
But, when I monitored surgeries in Peoria, EWTN was taken off of analog and put onto digital. So, I could only get it when I stayed in certain hotels- those of which were usually sold out! >:-(
One other option for those who like EWTN, but do not have cable access, nor high speed internet and would prefer to not subscribe to Dish or Direct TV is FTA satellite.
EWTN broadcasts their original master signal via unencrypted satellite (known as FTA or free to air). Anyone is allowed to recieve and watch their channels. EWTN actually have 6 TV channels. The US only gets one of them. The other channels are targeted for different parts of the world and the programming can be quite different and also fun to watch.
http://www.ewtn.com/tv/download_satellites/DOMsatellite.asp
The only downside is that you would require one of the larger (8.5′ minimum) c-band satellite dish. If you are lucky and still have one of these dishes in your yard, you can purchase a receiver for $60-$100 to get all of these channels (and many more). I currently receive almost 500 TV channels unencrypted via FTA satellite, however I mainly use this system to watch sports backhaul feeds from the stadiums.
In the Seattle area, where I live, EWTN has been on the digital cable for quite some time. Prior to upgrading to digital, we had the basic cable package (which did not include EWTN), largely because that portion of the service is provided to us at a favorable discount through our condominium association and paid through our monthly dues. We upgraded to digital shortly before Comcast put C-Span2 on digital (their first channel to go digital).
Pax et bonum,
Keith Töpfer
I’ve had problems with Charter in Wisconsin(some years ago) where in the past they would air another protestant station on the EWTN channel(the guide still told me it was EWTN, but it clearly was not). I called up and explained and all the tech could tell me was that was the right station. I dropped Charter a little while later over the issue.
Here in Australia it is possible to watch EWTN via satellite or, like I do, via computer.