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Local cable company under new ownership |
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Written by Publisher
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Monday, 15 October 2007 |
By Amy Cherry
As of early August, St. Marys Cable Television is now under new ownership by Zito Media, based out of Coudersport.
"We thought the purchase of the St. Marys cable company would fit in well to the existing mix of our current cable systems," said Jim Rigas, co vice-president of Zito Media. "We hope to bring something as far as offering a new system to the area."
Currently Zito operates the cable television and high-speed data operations in Coudersport, Emporium, Austin, Roulette, Port Allegany, Hazen, Treasure Lake, Weedville, and the surrounding areas.
The transaction between the two entities was completed during the first week of August. Rigas emphasized that the local St. Marys cable office will remain open, under the direction of Joe Dunkle.
"We plan to keep what is here and enhance it," Rigas said. Zito also offers phone and high-speed data (Internet) services to its subscribers.
Owned and operated by the Rigas family, former owners of Adelphia Cable, the cable system has an estimated 14,000 subscribers in Pennsylvania.
Adelphia Cable was founded in 1952 by John Rigas, James' father. It was the fifth-largest U.S. cable firm before its collapse in 2002.
Rigas said the first focus of the company is initially working to upgrade the local system, which is currently an ongoing process. The main purpose of this action is to make the cable plant a two-way system, capable of communicating in both directions.
"A small amount of this had been done in St. Marys, but it had never been completed," Rigas explained about the new system.
He added that a gradual migration toward digital programming will likely occur within the next six to nine months.
According to Rigas, currently St. Marys has mostly analog cable service, with a small percent of digital service. Over time more and more programming will become digital because it offers more capacity and better picture quality advantages among its highlights.
"There are a number of reasons the world is moving to digital television and we would expect the system here to evolve towards that in a quicker way than it has in the last five to 10 years," Rigas said.
Once the turnover to digital cable is complete, local cable subscribers will have access to interactive video on demand services, which consists of ordering movies through cable television with the ability to fast forward, rewind, or pause the movie.
Rigas said that there may be some other small changes, however there will be no dramatic changes in local programming. The local school and community channels will remain intact.
"We are also planning to add the NFL Network along with high definition programming, which is currently not available in St. Marys," Rigas added.
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Last Updated ( Tuesday, 16 October 2007 )
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