DirectTV or cable? (Knoxville, Gray, Sneedville: home, to live in, station)

[inherownwrite]

We moved here in January from the Atlanta area and kept our DirectTV service. Unfortunately, DirectTV doesn't provide the local Knoxville PBS station (our PBS comes out of Abington). Because public television relies so heavily on donations, I'd like to be able to support a station in my own state, soooooo....we are looking into cable. Any comments on Charter or Comcast. Is one company better than the other? What have been your experience with either company? Are you happy with your service? Do you feel you get a good deal? Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated.

[BuzzCam]

I live in Nashville and work in the television industry.

I would assume the local cable companies in your area would carry Channel 47 out of Norton, Virginia (or Channel 52 out of Abingdon) as your local PBS Station, as they have the strongest PBS Signals in that area. (I used to live in Gray.) A cable company has to carry a local channel, if that channel's signal meets a certain strength at the cable company's location.

You could probably get an outside antenna to pick up Channel 2 out of Sneedville, which I believe re-broadcasts the PBS Station out of Knoxville. I am not sure what Channel 2's digital channel is though.

As you may know, all the local analog channels, with the exception of the low power TV Stations will disappear in Feb. of next year. Of course, if you have cable, satellite, a digital TV or digital receiver you won't be affected.

We have a Hi-Def TV here in Nashville and an outdoor antenna. Had to cut back on expenses, so we got rid of our DirecTV. But, our PBS Digital Station has two channels on it, one of which is the Documentary Channel. Some of the other Digital Channels in Nashville are feeding up to 5 different programs on them.

Hope this helps.

Have a great weekend!

Buzz

[William Jones]

From my experience with comcast here and in FL. I would stick with Directv. I'm sure you could mail donations to your local PBS station and maybe pick it up out of the air.

[ComicalMoodyDan]

If you can get DSL you might want to consider a triple bundle from Embarq. They have triple play bundles that come with home phone, DSL service, and Dish Network Sat TV. My neighbors have the triple bundle with them and seem to be very happy with it.