WCR logo
  

Thursday - 06/20/2013

Click for Edmonton City Centre, Alberta Forecast

St. Paul - Mundare St. Paul
Jubilee
2008-2009
Catechism Logo Exploring the
Catholic Catechism
Compendium-Cover
Compendium
of the
Social Doctrine
of the Church

Last Updated: Friday - 09/24/2010

Week of April 14, 2003

Mother Angelica needs to go digital -- cable boss

By RAMON GONZALEZ
WCR Staff Writer
Edmonton

If you want to get Mother Angelica's Eternal Word Television Network (EWTN) in your community, you will have to pressure EWTN to change the format in which it broadcasts. That's according to Jim Edwards, marketing assistant at Persona Communications in Edmonton.

Persona offers regular and digital cable services to 320 communities in Western Canada. Out of these, only three communities in Saskatchewan get EWTN. "The reason we don't offer it in more communities is because of the method they send up their signal," explains Edwards.

"So they really need to change how they send it out. If it's sent out in a digital signal then we would be able to offer it in more communities."

As it stands right now, EWTN sends its signal through the regular cable system. Persona offers 30 to 40 channels on regular cable. But as Edwards explains, "all 40 channels are full right now so to add EWTN in a community like that we would have to remove another channel and we don't want to do that right now. We don't want to remove something to add EWTN."

Persona Communications "won't be adding EWTN" in the Alberta communities it services unless EWTN changes the way it sends out the signal, Edwards said. "It really has nothing to do with demand (but with) the format in which EWTN broadcasts.

"If people are interested in (getting) EWTN, they should pressure EWTN to change how they send out their signal"

A customer service representative at Edmonton's Shaw Cable, however, said it is all about numbers. "Once they get enough requests they will attempt to get that channel," she told the WCR.

Dale Henderson of Shaw Cable's corporate office in Calgary could not be reached for comment April 9. Shaw offers cable services to major cities like Edmonton and Calgary.

Scott Hults, director of communications with EWTN at Irondale, Ala., could not be reached for comment either.

Copyright © 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009 -- Western Catholic Reporter

Our mission: To serve our readers by bringing the Gospel to bear on current issues in the Church and in secular culture through accurate news coverage and reflective commentary.