Rogue Valley Community Television

In the next few weeks, local RVTV Channels will be assigned new channel numbers on the Charter Communication Cable System  in Southern Oregon.

Channel 9 (RVTV Premiere) will move to 180, Channel 14 (Medford & Jackson County Government Access) to 181, Channel 15 (Rogue Valley Public Access) to 182, and Channel 21 (Grants Pass Government Access) to 183. The changes will take place over a three week period beginning next week.

Here is the schedule for the transition areas from Charter:

• On April 15, 2014, customers in Ashland, Grants Pass, Eagle Point, White City, Outer Central Point, Rogue River, Outer Medford, Gold Hill & Merlin will transition.
• On April 22, 2014, customers in Talent, Phoenix, Applegate, Jacksonville and those remaining in Central Point, White City, Outer Medford & Gold Hill.
• On April 29, 2014, customers in Central Medford and those remaining in Jacksonville will transition.

Charter has digital boxes available for customers who would need to upgrade to receive the higher channels. Information released by Charter indicates each home will receive 2 of these digital capable boxes for no cost for the first 24 months. After that, it may well be local subscribers would have to pay for the use of these boxes, which PEG Access channels such as RVTV are in opposition of. These channels are funded by Charter franchise agreements with local cities and counties with the intention that they be available to every basic cable subscriber at no additional charge.

Illustration by Daniel Go, licensed via Creative Commons