During the holiday season, most give as many gifts as they receive. That philosophy of give-and-take is true for subscribers to Atlantic Broadband's Value Service package of cable television channels.
Area sports fans might have noticed that ESPN Classic is no longer available on Atlantic Broadband, unless they subscribe to the company's Digital Service - where it can still be found on channel 307. This move was made to accommodate Atlantic Broadband's launch of ESPN360.com, ESPN's 24/7 broadband sports network.
"We have to pay ESPN for every high-speed (Internet) customer we have," Sam McGill, Atlantic Broadband's vice president and general manager in South Carolina said of the move to add ESPN360.com at no additional cost to its Internet customers.
In order to keep subscribers from incurring extra charges, Atlantic Broadband had to move one of it's other ESPN networks exclusively to the Digital Service.
"We try to negotiate the best deals we can at the best rates possible," McGill said.
With limited coverage of live events, ESPN Classic was the logical choice. There was another factor for Atlantic Broadband's move. The ESPN family of networks offers comprehensive coverage of Southeastern Conference games. That's of particular interest to South Carolina and Georgia fans. Those SEC events will only be found on ESPN, ESPN2 or ESPN360.com - not ESPN Classic.
"It's important to make sure we had ESPN360 out there. It covers a lot of things and a lot of different sports," McGill said of the Internet coverage which offers more than 3,500 live, global sport events annually. "ESPN Classic doesn't carry live games. It made sense to move it to the digital package to offset the costs of launching ESPN360."
The move of ESPN Classic exclusively to the Digital Service occurred on Dec. 16, the same day ESPN360.com was launched by Atlantic Broadband. McGill said customers were notified of the alteration in coverage between 60 and 30 days prior on their bill messages. The move seemed inevitable since Aiken was one of the only Atlantic Broadband markets that offered ESPN Classic as part of its Value Service.
Atlantic Broadband serves 21,000 South Carolina customers in Aiken, Barnwell, Bamberg and Allendale counties.
Contact Noah Feit at nfeit@aikenstandard.com.
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