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DIRECTV claims Crossville cable provider stole its programming
Oct 25, 2010 Written by Alison Morrow
About a week ago, Spirit Broadband customers in Crossville tuned in to watch some of their regular TV shows, only to find the channels no longer existed.
The incident brought Deborah Burgess to Sam's Satellite, Spirit's competition.
"They've got a good offer on 120 channels," Burgess said.
Burgess only recently decided on DISH TV after deciding she's done with Spirit Broadband -- and she's not alone.
"It's probably quadrupled the amount of people through the door and the amount of phone calls we've been receiving," said Sam's Satellite Owner Malisa Bolin.
Many of those new customers arrive complaining about the same issue.
"I'm without 34 of my channels that I'm supposedly supposed to have," Burgess said. "I want my money back. That's what I want."
Though no one's debating whether the channels are gone, there is debate about why.
Spirit isn't sure what went wrong. Since acquiring their cable system three years ago, the company claims they've upheld their contract with their vendor and followed the rules.
In a statement released to 10News, the company claims:
"When Spirit Broadband acquired their cable system three and a half years ago, they also acquired all agreements from the former owner to continue current cable operations between the cable system and a reputable vendor to distribute their signals. Spirit was given assurance at that time that they could continue to conduct business as a cable operator and continue with the agreements that were outlined. Both the agreements and services that Spirit Broadband acquired have recently been compromised. Spirit Broadband has remained in good faith to their commitment to their part of the agreement. More than one half of a million dollars (more than $500,000) has been paid by Spirit Broadband over the past three and a half years as per the agreements set forth by the former owner. Spirit Broadband is investigating all allegations against them and are working in conjunction with the programming vendors so that they may continue to maintain the high level of quality programming that Spirit was promised."
DIRECTV has another answer to questions surrounding the lost channels.
"DIRECTV has determined that Spirit Broadband was illegally re-broadcasting certain DIRECTV programming to its cable subscribers in the communities of Crossville, Pleasant Hill and Sparta," said DIRECTV Spokesman Robert Mercer. "This past week, as part of the investigation, DIRECTV aired an on-screen message asking viewers to call DIRECTV's Office of Signal Integrity if they were able to view the on-screen message. Several calls have been received confirming the fraud. The unauthorized retransmission of TV signals is a violation of federal law and DIRECTV is weighing its legal options
Whatever happened, the competition isn't complaining.
"We've been extremely busy, very happy about that, very sad it's at somebody else's cost," Bolin said.
(wbir.com)
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