VALDOSTA — Local cable provider Mediacom has announced they are changing channels in the Valdosta market and adding several new ones to the lineup.

The E! channel, Oxygen and Univision are to be added in the next few weeks and Bravo, TV Land and Women’s Entertainment will be relocated from the current digital cable lineup and included in a new family cable package.

In addition, the cable company is moving approximately 30 channels to accommodate the expanded services.

Sally Bloom, director of area operations for Mediacom, said the changes will all take place Monday, Nov. 25, the week of Thanksgiving.

The most difficult part of the change for Mediacom customers will be learning the new channel line-ups. A sampling of the changes includes moving Disney to Channel 37 from 50, Headline News will switch from 56 to 46, Comedy will move from 96 to 59 and the Food network will change from 49 to 55. And more than 25 other channels will also change in the process.

To help customers through the process, Mediacom is mailing the new channel listings to all of its Valdosta-Lowndes County customers.

E! Entertainment is a 24-hour channel featuring style, beauty, fashion and home design, Oxygen is designed primarily for women, and Univision broadcasts news, dramas, sitcoms and educational programs entirely in Spanish.

When the digital upgrade is complete, customers will also be eligible to receive more channels including additional premium movie channels from HBO, Cinemax, Showtime, Starz, Encore and The Movie Channel. The upgrade has also allowed for high-speed cable-modem service for the 33,493 homes in the Valdosta/Lowndes County area which Mediacom lines pass.

When Mediacom first acquired the cable system in July 2001, the company pledged to make numerous upgrades to the system and expand the services offered. Their technicians have installed approximately 130 miles of fiber-optic cable along city streets in the past year and connected it to the coaxial cable running into customers’ homes, Bloom said. The effort was a large part of the $10 million that the cable operator has invested so far in the Valdosta system.



To contact Business Editor Kay Harris, please call 244-3400, ext. 280.