As
some of you have already noticed, Denver Open Media's channel 58 has
now been moved to channel 56. We apologize for the lack of notice, but
there was miscommunication between Comcast and the City, who had hoped
to make this change towards the end of the month. We are very sorry for any
inconvenience this may have caused you, our producers and viewers.
We had planned to implement
some exciting new features and services on 58 when it moved to 56,
including live text-message voting, with a real-time vote results and
comments scroll across the bottom of the screen. With the change
happening several weeks pre-maturely, we are now rushing to add this
feature ASAP, which will help us all get some valuable feedback from
our viewers and should increase vote participation among viewers. This feature will be the first of its kind on TV in the US.
Channel 57 is staying exactly the same, with the programming
determined primarily by votes, but Channel 56 will now be the NEW show
channel. Anyone who has a regular series that has been airing on 58
will now see it on channel 56.
For those of you wondering why this change is taking place, the City (who
operates channel 8) asked us to make the trade so that they acquire
Channel 58 for the upcoming 2008 Denver Sesquicentennial, 150 years
since being founded in 1858. In
exchange, DOM is receiving support from the city to promote DOM channels and to initiate
the SMS text messaging and voting for the channels. This is a very exciting
addition and will allow viewers to email or text in their votes as well
as leave comments live during the broadcast of your show! By the end of
the month, viewers will be able to vote in three ways: via
text-messaging, by phone through a voice-activated system, and (as
always) on the website.
Thank you, and on behalf of the City of Denver, Comcast, and Deproduction, we apologize for the abrupt channel move.
- Ann Theis, Tony Shawcross, and the Deproduction staff.
