Bob,

Your title was a pun -- good job. Explaining your pun, that's where you failed.

Also, as a writer for a TELEVISION BLOG, how do you comment that you'd drop upwards of 20 channels in lieu of the Tennis Channel?

It's probably a strategy from comcast to keep that channel obscure and when the owner realize that they can't make a buck from the channel, they will pretty much be force to sell it cheaply to comcast.

I believe the issue is not that Comcast doesn't carry Tennis Channel but that it relegates it to a sports tier customers must choose and pay for, while some other sports channels including some owned by Comcast, are on more broadly-based basic tiers. I don't see a problem with putting narrower-viewership channels in packages that must be selected, but every content provider wants its channels in the basic level so they collect more money, and there may be issues with Comcast preferring content it owns over content it doesn't own. OTOH, there was another channel complaining that Versus got a lower channel number than it did--when you have so many channels you need to search the guide by program name or channel name anyway, what difference does the actual channel number make?

I worry that with an a la carte system that niche channels I like would just disappear, but I hate the breadth of the bundles currently available that contain too many channels I never watch, and it costs too much to move up to get one or two channels in the next tier I might want to watch. It's also getting annoying to see content providers trying to force their less-popular channels onto more basic tiers by linking them to carriage of a popular one.

I get the tennis channel on Comcast in Chattanooga. Have for about a year. Still no Tennis Channel HD here on Comcast though and that blows, especially with the Aussie Open starting in a week and a half.

I can complain about my cable not carrying a network that I like. Yet at the same time, doesn't a cable company have a right to carry what they want in thier line up and what they don't want? You can always call and request they add it to thier line up, but suing a company for not carrying a channel? Seems a bit overboard. In the end they have a right to say they don't want to carry a channel, even if that channel wants to be carried by them.

We have Comcast here in Connecticut and get The Tennis Channel -- have for about a year and a half. Weird.

Bob, I am with you on on the tennis channel. I can't get enough of tennis, and the Australian open is coming up. Last year (In Cincinnati), I attended the Western and Southern Financial Group Women's open and managed to get the autograph of Jelena Jankovic ( She is my favorite lady player), which, by the way, she won.

If you are ever in the Cincinnati area, let's hit a few balls. I am a good baseliner but my net game needs a little work.