Subscriber Comments for
Cox Cable Press Release

Comments in order of when they were received | (reverse order)

COMMENT 309970	2012-08-18 03:44 PM
In the first week of August last year I cancelled my Cox cable tv. I replaced Cox with the "internet." Cancel your Cox service.
COMMENT 309971	2012-08-18 03:45 PM
Why do I assume it's Cox being unreasonable and not Smith Media? Another example of money being more important than being a good neighbor, a supportive member of the community, providing an important local resource to local people. It's bad enough I have to pay $65/month (well, that was LAST month) for bare minimum television, now I'm losing local news and a major broadcast network? KSBY news is better anyway, frankly, and there is nothing on basic TV anyway, so I'm cancelling Cox. Last straw. $65 can buy a lot of books, Netflix, Amazon Prime, and Hulu every month.
COMMENT 309972	2012-08-18 03:45 PM
Who do you use for an ISP, Dan? Just curious. Verizon/Satellite/other?
COMMENT 309977	2012-08-18 03:58 PM
I still use Cox for that.
COMMENT 309978	2012-08-18 03:59 PM
We can all get KEYT3 for free with a digital antenna so we all know that COX Cable is the villain here!
COMMENT 309979	2012-08-18 04:00 PM
Its the Boston based owners of KEYT who are at fault, not Cox (who incidentally donated several grand to a local farm recently). Let's face it, KEYT's broadcast itself is substandard, then their programming- the supposed jewel in the crown news show is a major joke. All of their late-night and most of their weekend programming is infomercials. Why should Cox or their subscribers pay for that? Obviously KEYT's owners in Boston are severely deluded when it comes to the value of their "product".
COMMENT 309971	2012-08-18 04:08 PM
Just cancelled my Cox Service. Very nice woman on the phone offered to lower my basic cable charge to the current 6 month promotion rate of $41.65/month. But I cancelled anyway. Effective tomorrow, will receive a credit for the balance. No hard sale, very painless. She said they are getting a lot of angry calls over the KEYT thing....
COMMENT 309987	2012-08-18 04:13 PM
It's hard to know who to believe but without Smith Media's side of the story it's easy to see Cox's side has merit. As far as KEYT's importance to the nightly line up, they won't be missed as their coverage of local news usually falls behind KSBY's and KCOY's. KABC would be a fine replacement.
COMMENT 309988	2012-08-18 04:18 PM
I cancelled Cox a couple of years ago. Haven't missed it. In fact, my life is better. Netflix, Hulu, and all the news I need from the Internets... Thanks Edhat for the local reporting. I can find a live feed on the net for any important stories, both local and elsewhere in the world. What more could anyone need.
COMMENT 309992P	2012-08-18 04:40 PM
All of you who have cancelled clearly don't value the local public access, the government channels, 18-21 and CSPAN or is it online? I know that some of 18 is online, but what about the rest? Anyone know? If so, I'll cancel. although the main part of my Cox bill for $87/month is for internet access and very basic TV.
COMMENT 309994	2012-08-18 04:44 PM
I clicked on the Smith Media LLC link at the bottom of the keyt web page, and it brought me to smithtelevision dot com (spelled out because I can't post links here). If you go visit that link, I think you might figure out what a low budget company Smith is. Check the grammer and the content. Embarrasing, to say the least. Don't blame Cox for this. Smith is demanding an extraordinary amount of money, an amount unreasonable in a real market (like LA) and COMPLETELY unreasonable in this market. There have been valid complaints about Cox during this latest debacle (pricing and all that) but to dump Cox over this issue is just plain misdirected. You should be complaining to SmithMedia, and that will likely get you nowhere. And another poster was right about the infomercials and all that. They demand a lot of money and produce no content worth paying for. IMHO, shame on KEYT/SmithMedia in this case. Just my half cent after taxes.
COMMENT 309998	2012-08-18 04:55 PM
Just as in politics, there is so much disrespectful spin (which is a creative word for lying) coming from the interested parties that I am left not knowing who is reasonable and who is unreasonable. Neither company has a positive reputation in my mind, so I'm just going to assume they're both acting badly and take one more step towards abandoning TV altogether.
COMMENT 309979	2012-08-18 05:09 PM
In addition, Cox and other cable and satellite services have been trying to offer their subscribers a la carte channel options instead of forcing customers to pay for channels they don't watch or aren't interested in. I wouldn't be surprised if that was another sticking point; it certainly was with ViaCom and DiSH.
COMMENT 310009P	2012-08-18 06:06 PM
Wo needs keyt? It is laughable. Id much prefer if Cox had KABC out of L.A.....a little bit more grown up.
COMMENT 310013	2012-08-18 06:31 PM
We haven't had TV for over 15 years. No big deal. Plenty of news and entertainment is available on line, when you want it.
COMMENT 310018P	2012-08-18 06:41 PM
I would think KEYT will blink 1st, they are hoping to get a higher carriage fee as Smith is trying to sell the station and will get a higher price if they can lock that in. Cox can afford to have some people drop they will come back, KEYT can't as it will wreck the amount they can charge for ads based on viewers which is their other revenue stream.
COMMENT 310022	2012-08-18 06:58 PM
I would 1000x prefer KABC over KEYT. KEYT feels like a college journalism class that has out of date technology but the state budget hasn't allowed them to update it.
COMMENT 310026	2012-08-18 07:21 PM
Smith broadcasting has been a disaster to channel 3. I'll side w/ cox.
COMMENT 310030	2012-08-18 07:28 PM
So, if KEYT is dropped it will be replaced by KABC? Fine with me.
COMMENT 310032P	2012-08-18 07:34 PM
seriously, i pay $168 a month for lousy cable service and mediocre internet from cox. we can thank our politicians for the anti-trust legislature that gives cox exclusive rights to distribute cable in santa barbara. there's no reason my cable bill should exceed the cost of a modest new car payment or a mortgage on a 4 bdrm house in middle america.
BECKY	2012-08-18 08:39 PM
I'm sure both parties are to blame. I know NO ONE who thinks that Cox's monthly fees for TV are reasonable. They're outrageously overpriced. We all want a la carte channel choices, and they all want to sell packages, because otherwise, all the marginal channels would be unsellable. KEYT has gone downhill since Smith took over. So, two clueless big companies fighting over how to continue to charge even more for a poorer product. Great.
COMMENT 309971	2012-08-18 08:58 PM
Isn't there a federal law that prohibits a la carte cable service?
COMMENT 310054P	2012-08-18 09:27 PM
It's surprising there isn't more outrage about Cox's high fees for cable tv and internet access.
COMMENT 309992P	2012-08-18 10:18 PM
I pay about $30/month to Cox for television, the cheapest service and it seems adequate. I'd get more for the same amount of money from Direct TV but would not get public access. I can't understand anyone paying $168/month and complaining about it --- the solution is easy: cut back the tv to the cheapest. That said, I'd love to have a la carte choices but does ANY cable service offer that anywhere?
COMMENT 310079P	2012-08-19 07:16 AM
How ironic that cox accuses someone else of "charging unreasonable fees" for mediocre service!! 992 how are you paying $30? Mine is $68...
COMMENT 310082P	2012-08-19 07:24 AM
Oh please, no LA news broadcasts. Been there; done that. All you get is murders, gang fights, murders, carjackings, murders, rapes, murders, robberies, murders, drug busts. murders, freeway crashes, and murders. (Did I mention murders.)
COMMENT 310116	2012-08-19 08:59 AM
994--All spelling errors are grammatical errors; but not all grammatical errors are spelling errors. Now let's get back to the issue at hand ...
COMMENT 310134	2012-08-19 09:37 AM
Who cares about KEYT? KABC is fine with me also.
COMMENT 310149	2012-08-19 10:46 AM
A different ABC affiliate will be an upgrade. It is KEYT fault for not staying competitive. I'm sure they have the budget to upgrade their transmission to high definition like Every other station in the U.S. It is embarrassing that people's phones take better video than our news station sitting on top of the Mesa. T.V. Hill or whatever. I guarantee you it will be replaced by a station with better sensibilities for business. You can't get away with old technology in the modern world. Or contracts don't get renewed, regardless of which business. That being said I too will miss KEYT Local news. To summarize, they shot themselves in the foot,(By not upgrading and staying competitive)it is their own fault.
COMMENT 310154	2012-08-19 10:58 AM
No great loss
COMMENT 310157	2012-08-19 11:07 AM
That's why the name of the company is cox.
COMMENT 310164	2012-08-19 11:30 AM
I agree that KABC-7 would be much better than KEYT. In fact, most of us probably got cable originally to get clear reception of ALL the main LA stations 2, 4, 5, 7, 9, 11 and 13 and a couple PBS channels. Now they are almost all gone with Ch.9 still hanging in there. If any of our cable/satellite options in SB had them all again, I would switch immediately to their service. I also found it ironic and embarrassing that "embarrasing" with one 's' was used in the original comment above by 994 and the following corrections and not caught by anyone else. Very funny. Thanks.
COMMENT 310190	2012-08-19 02:02 PM
I lost my home in the SB Tea Fire. KEYT was the only news organization reporting minute by minute on the emergency and response (I even saw my home on fire during the KEYT's reporting). I contacted our elected officials and asked that they step in and help the parties find a resolution or extend the "deadline" in the interests of the health and safety of the Community. I am pleased to report that Salud Carbajal responded and contacted Cox immediately. I am shocked that no other "politician" other than Frank Hotchkiss even responded!!! Shame on them and thank you, Salud and Frank, for being responsible elected representatives. ASB
ROGER DODGER	2012-08-19 03:07 PM
It's just the weather channel.
COMMENT 310032P	2012-08-19 03:14 PM
cutting back the cheapest tv is not an option 992. i mainly watch programming i dvr because the live broadcasts occur when i'm at work or sleeping. i had to add two programming packages to the basic one just to get two more channels: BBC and SpeedTV, and still have to pay monthly for HBO too. i don't even feel i watch much television, maybe an hour or two a night but to get the programming diversity i like i've had to pay an arm and a leg, not to mention all the fees they tack on for the hd dvr. add internet service and voila! $168/month.
COMMENT 309994	2012-08-19 04:39 PM
TSB: You forget... or neglect to mention that keyt stopped coverage at midnight... as if peoples homes burning were no longer newsworthy, then proceeded to air infomercials. Quite lame.
CORKY	2012-08-19 05:18 PM
I didn't get an email, but called Cox and was told blah blah that they want to show the channel, but KEYT is refusing. Typical contract dispute. Probably both a fault. I feel that since my rates have doubled over the years, and Cox already took Hallmark and PBS away on Basic, I am not too sympathetic with their position.
COMMENT 310232	2012-08-19 05:20 PM
Let me echo those who believe KEYT is a joke. KEYT news at 5 o'clock consists of 3 episodes of weather (we live on the American Riviera for heaven's sake!), national feeds that are seen later on ABC network news, live cams of freeways in the Tri-Counties (if you're home watching TV and not driving your car, you need this information?). Zero investigative reporting, talking to politicos, etc. Reporters who earn minimum wage produce news that is minimum interest. Totally lame. And the KEYT infomercials! Legendary on weekends. Apparently KEYT can't sell commercials to local business so we're stuck with this stuff. When Cox pulls KEYT off the air, KEYT revenues will shrink as advertisers pull their commercials, now viewed by only those with rabbit ear antennae. Good riddance KEYT! And I've lived in Santa Barbara 32 years!
COMMENT 310234P	2012-08-19 05:28 PM
Years ago, broadcast stations were required to "serve the public interest" in exchange for the exclusive rights to use particular TV channels. This usually meant a minimum level of news (national and local) and locally produced public affairs programming that addressed local issues. Enforcement was via broadcast license renewals and public hearings. This all basically went out the window starting in the Reagan era and continuing through the corporate buyout environment of today. What we have today is clearly NOT in the public interest and it sucks. I have no recommendations for driving changes other than being highly selective in what you watch and rejecting the rest.
COMMENT 310234P	2012-08-19 06:34 PM
Just enjoyed KEYT news Ms. Bush telling us all to "install malware and keep it updated often" to prevent spyware from turning on your laptop camera and spying on you. SIGH!
COMMENT 310263P	2012-08-19 10:01 PM
Cox costs too much at any price. Failed to see the Olympics that wasn't on television, or the Mars landing that was exclusively on computer, because Cox loaded so slowly that the link failed every fifteen seconds.
COMMENT 310032P	2012-08-20 01:24 PM
right there with ya, 263P. i was really bummed about the olympic coverage. only post produced, lifetime style dramatics about diving and gymnastics in the primetime and all other events totally suppressed. you either watched it in low res, slow buffering, advertisement filled webcasts or not at all. that was mostly NBC's fault however.
COMMENT 310548	2012-08-20 05:10 PM
Howdy folks - It's Dax from the tech segment on KEY news in the morning :). The content of the news is certainly something worthy of discussion, and to that end I am always soliciting our viewers for ideas to present on air; I'm not paid by KEYT or any other entity to do the segment, and rely on our community to get ideas for stories/presentations/demos. I do the segment because I enjoy it, and hope people find it helpful - I'd really like to present you all with stories you enjoy too, so please do reach out and let me know if there is something I should talk about on air! I can't say I disagree with a lot of the sentiment here on the board...and hopefully this won't be surprising, but I don't subscribe to a television service. I 'cut the cord' 5 years ago w/ a Roku (I now use AppleTV) and haven't looked back once (Netflix, Amazon, and ipad/macbook mirroring). Thanks to all who do watch - see you on air, or on twitter!
COMMENT 316664	2012-09-05 09:00 PM
Hi -All the comments re KEYT are soooo true! I wish we could get back CH5 KTLA and KABC7 Re past anchors on KEYT Anyone remember Chan Cross or Lou Stumpo? Any info re Bill HUddy would be appreciated.Remember female anchor who had webbed hands? Wh was she/where is she now?

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