I meant on the normal comcast cable, not the digital edition.
Jason
Now you would have a point to have the B10 on the most basic digital package.
You do realize that 1 analog channel takes the same bandwidth of 10-12 digital SD channels, or 1 analog channel uses the bandwidth of 2-3 HDTV channels.
If you see a blank analog channel, say 84, that is probably providing the 10-12 digital HBO channels, or providing some HDTV channels, or giving the system the bandwidth for cable modems. Most cable systems have the capacity for 100-125 analog slots, but can get a lot more channels using digital.
The next problem with B10 on analog is football games. At times on football Saturday, the B10 network is using the primary channel and 2-3 additional overflow feeds. If you are an Illini fan, you'll probably get the Illini game here on analog, but what about the other games?
Eventually cable providers will have to go all digital just to provide enough channels to stay competitive with satellite. (The 2009 FCC ota mandate means nothing to cable companies, cable companies are not using FCC airways)
The current future direction of the industry is essentially all VOD, even live channels. It is easy to get a cable headend 1000 channels, but delivering all at the same time to every house is really expensive. Newer technology would allow cable companies to just send, say, 1-12 individual channels to your house for each of your home's tuner boxes.
