SportsTime Ohio's Friday Press Release

It wasn't quite what we predicted here in the Mighty Blog of Fun(tm) the other day, but close.

As expected, SportsTime Ohio has issued its wrapup press release on the cable TV negotiations that have taken place in the past few weeks, saying it's "close to finalizing" all of its talks. STO boss Jim Liberatore notes that in "just six weeks", the new Indians TV network has signed up 17 cable providers, and says there's a "strong possibility" that additional partners will be aboard before STO's first regular season broadcast on April 4.

We'll translate for him: "Hello, DirecTV! Dish Network, this means you, too!" By the way, if Dish Network does bring on SportsTime Ohio, we expect it to be on channel 431. Those who watch the behind-the-scenes transponder movement note that the non-public STO feed has moved onto a satellite that can be picked up by dishes pointed at 119 degrees...

As noted here, STO has signed up all of the region's major cable providers, along with a number of smaller outlets. But some cable viewers won't be seeing the network's 63 home HDTV games.

The STO release lists the channel numbers for the network on the services which have signed up. (We'll attach the list below.)

And, while most Adelphia subscribers near Cleveland will get HD games from STO on cable channel 798 ("HD Bonus"), it looks like HD STO games won't be seen on outlying Adelphia systems in places from New Philadelphia to Van Wert, or near Youngstown and the Shenango Valley.

Other systems without an HD channel listed may or may not just be omission at this point. The list also confirms the addition of Adelphia's digital cable SD simulcast on channel 179 as an addition to the previously announced channel 17, and not a replacement...

Here's the list:

-------------------

SYSTEM - GEOGRAPHIC REGION: Analog Channel, Digital Channel, HD Channel
Adelphia - Cleveland & suburbs: 17, 179, 798-HD
Adelphia - Ashtabula area: 30, 179, 798-HD
Adelphia - Lorain area: 23, 179, 798-HD
Adelphia - Macedonia area: 97, 179, 798-HD
Adelphia - Port Clinton area: 17, 179, 798-HD
Adelphia - Shenago Valley and Struthers/ Lowellville: 71
Adelphia - Bryan: 15, 179, no HD
Adelphia - Cadiz / Amsterdam: 19
Adelphia - Defiance/ Deshler/ Napoleon/ Paulding / Wauseon/ Waterville: 37, 179, no HD
Adelphia - Cambridge/ Caldwell/ Apple Valley/ Newark/ Riverside/ Coshocton: 53, 179, no HD
Adelphia - New Philadelphia/ Minerva/ Sebring/ Newcomerstown / Carrollton: 69, 179, no HD
Adelphia - Marion: 69
Adelphia - Celina / Van Wert / Minster: 74, 179, no HD
Armstrong - Medina/Orrville area: 4,177-HD
Armstrong - Ashland area: 69, 177-HD
Armstrong - Boardman area: 66, 177-HD
Armstrong - Meadville, PA area: 69, 177-HD
BTC Multimedia - Bascom: 76
Buckeye CableSystem - Toledo Metro Area: 32, 653-HD
Buckeye CableSystem - Erie County: 57, 653-HD
CableSuite 541 - Conneaut area: 81
City of Wadsworth - Wadsworth: 77
Clear Picture - Central Wayne County: 10
Comcast - Lake & Lorain Counties: 73, HD is TBD
Cox - Western Cleveland suburbs: 58, 758-HD
Doylestown Cable - Doylestown: 16
Insight - Central Ohio: 60, 779-HD
GLW Broadband - Lorain County area: 37
Massillon Cable - Western Stark County: 11
Orwell Cable Television - Orwell area: 44
Time Warner - Northeast Ohio: 23, 523-HD
Time Warner - Northwest Ohio: 25, 757-HD
Time Warner - Mid-Ohio: 34, 758-HD
TSC Communication - Auglaize County: 12
WOW! - Cleveland area: 72, 221-HD
WOW! - Columbus area: 57, 221-HD