Hope you were taking copious notes when representatives of the two local cable behemoths, Comcast and United Artists, were being grilled on Josh Lewin's "SportsLine" show the other night.
A word of caution: Don't hold your breath waiting for things to get better.
The news seemed brighter, but only slightly, for city residents who subscribe to United Artists and hunger greatly for the addition of ESPN2 to its lineup. Roman Crispin, a UA spokesman, said the two sides have "pretty much" reached agreement on placing the 17-month old channel on the system, adding that "The Deuce" should premiere "definitely by the end of the year."
Of course, city subscribers will be forgiven for a healthy dose of skepticism, since UA representatives said in this space that ESPN2 could have been available two months ago.
David Nevins, a Comcast spokesman, was especially vague on a number of fronts, including the return to the Baltimore County lineup of Washington's WDCA-TV 20 -- the only place where Bullets and Capitals road games can be found -- and a move of Home Team Sports from premium, or pay, status to basic.
Nevins said Comcast is hamstrung by limited channel capacity in bringing back Channel 20, which was yanked from the Baltimore County system last summer, and nothing approaching a firm date for its return was offered.
Nevins said Comcast, which controls systems in Harford and Howard counties as well as Baltimore County, is talking with HTS about carrying the regional sports channel as a part of basic, but "those discussions haven't, of yet, come to a successful conclusion."
"It's a matter of economics. Within the near future, we would hope to ultimately add HTS to basic. That's our long-term goal," said Nevins.
Gotta love a guy who won't dance around the issues, huh?
From a business standpoint, one can understand the reluctance of Comcast and UA to shift HTS to basic, especially when they're raking in dough from charging subscribers in excess of $10 per month for the channel.
In fairness, given the Orioles, Bullets and Capitals bent of the channel, it should be noted that interest in HTS programming is, not surprisingly, at its highest in the Baltimore-Washington corridor, where five of the fewer than 10 systems that charge HTS subscribers a premium rate are located.
The channel charges systems in this region a bit more than in other coverage areas, and those costs are, understandably, passed onto you.
Still, the overwhelming majority of the 2.8 million HTS subscribers on the 258 systems in the service region -- which covers southern Pennsylvania south to North Carolina and west into West Virginia -- get the channel through some sort of basic service as do portions of Anne Arundel County, Prince George's County and Southern Maryland. Westminster will get HTS as part of basic service starting next month, according to Terry Chili, HTS' director of marketing and affiliate relations.
Nevins said Comcast has about 20,000 HTS subscribers during peak baseball periods and fewer than 10,000 currently, adding "There isn't the huge, huge demand for that [HTS on basic] that people think there is."
Of course, the exorbitant prices, often-shoddy service and the hassle of having to secure a cable converter box to watch one channel have nothing to do with that lack of demand, right?
Nevins touted a new mini-satellite plan as an option for sports fans who want HTS as a part of basic service. While the idea of getting a collection of regional sports channels sounds nice, it comes with a big price.
There's the $195 installation charge, the monthly programming charge and bonus levies for NBA and NHL packages in the satellite deal, not to mention another little surprise tucked in for good measure:
Because local stations don't appear on satellites, you'd either need an A/B switch and an antenna or a basic cable subscription to get the standbys, Channels 2, 11, 13, 45 and 54, not to mention Maryland Public Television.
Not such a great deal after all, eh?
Here are two suggestions for Coles Ruff and Curt Pendleton, the heads of UA and Comcast:
* Do all of us long suffering subscribers a favor by adding HTS to basic as soon as possible, or at the very least, cutting the charge in half until you do.
* Show up next time to face the slings and arrows of an angry public rather than relegating the job to your public relations minions.
That's called customer service, a decidedly lost art in Baltimore-area cable.