The University of Dayton will receive new cable channels on Thursday, Jan. 24, after a decision by Student Development and the provost to update the university’s current Time Warner Cable package.
The system will be substantially upgraded, operating with one of the most comprehensive cable TV systems of any college, with a mix of educational programming and an array of sports and entertainment channels, according to an email announcement on Wednesday, Jan. 16, from UD Information Technologies.
The university’s campus-wide digital cable television network currently provides programming received via local television stations and the local cable television provider. This will remain the same, but there will be more accessible channels.
“Our 10-year contract with Time Warner was over, [meaning] we had the opportunity to revisit our entire TV lineup and have it reflect the changing interests and academic needs of our students,” said Thomas Skill, university associate provost and chief information officer. “The last channel lineup only changed by about five channels over 10 years. This is a huge transition to a ‘best-in-class’ campus system.”
Student Development and the provost selected the new channel line-up with input from students, faculty and staff. There will be nearly 50 high-definition channels, more than 35 international channels and six Home Box Office channels, which will replace the one current movie channel.
“[The new international channels will] support our various academic programs,” Skill said. “[They will also] give some of our international students programming from home.”
The new international channels will feature programming in Arabic, Chinese, Spanish, Russian, German and Japanese.
Students expressed support for the new cable package.
“We do not currently have a very good movie channel,” said Lauren Lombardi, a freshman early childhood education major. “The new HBO channels will be of interest to me because I enjoying watching movies, especially without commercial breaks.”
In addition to the six HBO channels, UD’s new cable system will include a channel popular among many students, ABC Family.
“I am excited to finally have the channel ABC Family,” said Katie Odell, a freshman early childhood education major. “I watched ‘Pretty Little Liars’ and ‘Harry Potter’ weekends at home, and was devastated to find that I could not when I am at school.”
The signal quality of the system will be greatly improved to more closely match new HD televisions. All television sets will continue to receive the 20 traditional analog channels, but only newer digital TVs will get all of the channels, according to Skill. Because this move takes UD to a digital, rather than analog system, analog televisions will not have access to many stations.
On Thursday, every TV accessing UD’s cable system will need to be re-scanned so its tuner recognizes the new channel lineup. On most tuners, viewers can select “menu,” “channels” and “auto scan.”
For more information on the new channels,
or any questions relating to them, call the UD Help Desk at 937-229-3888. Students can also email them at helpdesk@udayton.edu, or visit bit.ly/Xejj41.
