Despite the new opportunity to receive premium cable channels and digital cable in residence hall rooms, upgraded cable packages still remain largely unpopular in Miami University residence halls.
Steve Thole, director of Business Systems and Technology for Housing Dining and Guest Services (HDGS), estimates that a little more than 200 on-campus residents are currently signed up to use digital cable boxes and upgraded packages.
Beginning last fall, students had the option of ordering a digital cable box, HDTV and 100-, 200- and 250-channel packages for $150 per semester. Students must also pay extra for Showtime, Cinemax, Starz and HBO.
Miami gets the digital cable services it offers to students through the DISH Network.
Sophomore Annie Greiner is one of the few students who have the digital cable box and selected the regular 100-channel package with HDTV. Although she said she was too busy last semester to watch it at all, she uses it now.
"I don't know if the digital cable is actually worth the price," Greiner said, "but it's worth it to me. What I do watch are the channels that come with the box."
Greiner, who lives in MacCracken Hall, said she doesn't know of any other students around her who opted for the cable box.
Junior Jason Ream decided not to make the switch to digital cable this fall. He has the regular basic cable that all on-campus students receive.
"I don't feel like it's worth the extra money," Ream said. "If there's something that I want to watch that I can't see on TV, I just go online."
Even though few students have opted in for the premium channels, Thole said a low turnout of students using digital cable does not hurt the university financially.
"We just pay one price across the board," Thole said, "no matter how many students sign up."
Cathy McVey, director of customer relations and communications for IT Services, says that she isn't surprised by the response to the offer.
"We were billed pretty conservatively this first year," McVey said. "We expected there to be low numbers in the beginning, but more people would catch on over time."
McVey also said the reason the university decided to offer these options was because students were asking for premium channels and High Definition, options that aren't offered under regular service.
Thole says that the university offers basically the same cable options as DISH Network does to other customers.
Beginning this semester, students voted to add USA, TBS, A&E, Travel Channel, TNT, ESPN Alternate, TLC and TV Land to the analog cable options. They removed Sci-Fi, Cartoon Network, MTV2 and Lifetime.
