Buckeye CableSystem

Buckeye CableSystem, known as The CableSystem until August 1996, is a cable company located in Toledo, Ohio, USA, which serves northwest Ohio and parts of southeast Michigan. Buckeye CableSystem is a full-service cable company including TV, broadband and home telephone services.

It is owned by Block Communications which also owns The Blade and The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette newspapers.

Buckeye CableSystem also operates the cable system in Sandusky and Erie County in north central Ohio, which was formerly known as Erie County Cablevision.

Buckeye CableSystem also has a regional sports network Buckeye Cable Sports Network (BCSN).

Services

Video: Digital Cable TV, Video On Demand, Pay Per View, Whole Home DVR on up to 6 TVs, HD DTA converters (2 free per account) and over 100 HD options. Buckeye TV Everywhere: Cable TV customers watch streamed content from various cable TV programmers on Web enabled devices such as computers, smartphones, tablets and more.

Internet: Buckeye Express High-Speed Internet (800 kbit/s Down/100 kbit/s Up • 9 Mbit/s Down/2 Mbit/s Up • 26 Mbit/s Down/3 Mbit/s Up)

Buckeye1: 50 Mbit/s Down with 5 Mbit/s Up • The Blade All Access including Sunday Home Delivery, where available • Watch BCSN app… Authorized BCSN Live, whether you have cable TV or not • Apple iPad Mini, 16 GB white, Wi-Fi

Phone: Buckeye Phone—3 Phone Plans Available—Digital home telephone service, using a hybrid VoIP

Buckeye Brainiacs: Technical and equipment support technicians for Buckeye Cablesytem customers. A variety of monthly service plans are available.

History

In February 2015 Buckeye CableSystem will mark a half century as one of the leading technology companies in the Toledo area. Founded Feb. 3, 1965, the firm has grown to be the premier provider of video, Internet and voice services, and now boasts residential and commercial solutions that would have been inconceivable 50 years ago. Through the years, the company transformed from a local cable television operator distributing a handful of channels, to an industry leader in communications and entertainment in NW Ohio and SE Michigan. The company has invested hundreds of millions of dollars to construct and operate a world-class hybrid fiber optic communications network, which is the lifeblood of the products and services offered today. Beyond the current lineup of more than 250 channels of cable television, Buckeye is the undisputed leader in residential high speed Internet and also provides home phone service to more than 70,000 local customers. With such a robust communications infrastructure, Buckeye also emerged as a leading innovator in business services. Buckeye TeleSystem was formed 20 years ago and in recent years has been a technology partner, helping fuel productivity improvements and competitive superiority for local small, medium and large businesses. The combined companies employ more than 600 local professionals whose careers range from customer operations and technical operations to finance, sales and engineering. The company takes great pride in managing 100% of its field and management operations in the metropolitan Toledo area, and continues investments which differentiate the company from a customer experience perspective.

BCSN

In 2004, Buckeye started BCSN, the popular 24-hour sports network which concentrates on local sports at all levels – scholastic, college, professional, and even club sports. High definition production was added in 2010. Programming is streamed live on the Internet, allowing Grandma in California to watch her grandson or granddaughter play in a sport in Toledo. BCSN garnered so much popularity that in 2013, a second channel was added, allowing for twice the number of sporting events to be carried. Within the last year, the company launched a home security and home automation line of products powered by Buckeye Express Internet. Buckeye Smart Home, in addition to the traditional fire and burglar alarm service, offers customers the ability to monitor their homes or small businesses from afar.

Buckeye Brainiacs

In October 2014, Buckeye Brainiacs was introduced to be a resource for the common person needing help to manage technology in their home. As Buckeye Express has emerged as the leading Internet solution in our area, it was clear Buckeye’s customers needed help managing in-home WiFi networks, electronic devices, computer malware and other technology-related issues. The Brainiacs are among the most seasoned technology experts and revel in the opportunity to assist customers with technology, over the phone or even in customer’s homes. For a small monthly fee, customers have access to help via the telephone or by a technician in the home, when needed. This service is based on the Xfinity Signature Support, once offered by Comcast nationwide.

Buckeye1

In September 2014, Buckeye CableSystem and its sister company, The Blade, held a community event at the Toledo Public Library to announce a new product called Buckeye1. Buckeye1 is an innovative Internet solution which delivers 50 Mbit/s of downstream along with a 500 GB data plan. What makes the product so unique is it also comes with exclusive live video from Watch BCSN, Blade All Access, and an Apple iPad mini 2 included in a single $80 per month everyday price. This product marked the first collaboration by Apple with a local Internet/media firm, and it was the first time Apple delivered a preloaded device with a specific media connection. Company officials approached Apple about a year earlier with the idea, which piqued the interest of the California firm and was the impetus for Apple to develop the specialized apps.

Carriage dispute

WUPW

On December 12, 2012 at 5PM, Buckeye CableSystem ceased broadcasting of local Fox affiliate WUPW, due to a dispute between the cable system, WUPW owner American Spirit Media and WUPW operator Raycom Media (owners of WTOL). The dispute was over the increase in rates to carry the station in light of its low ratings and American Spirit's purchase of WUPW, in which they gave control of the station to WTOL. Since that date, CableSystem viewers saw a notice about the dispute in WUPW's channel position explaining the dispute.^[1]WUPW would return into lineup on January 21, 2013.^[2]

WNWO

December 15, 2013 saw the expiration and non-renewal of the retransmission contract between WNWO-TV and local cable company Buckeye CableSystem. With the two unable to reach an agreement on a monetary price to continue WNWO's cable coverage, Buckeye had to drop the station (at Sinclair's request, as per FCC regulations, which state a station cannot be retransmitted without its permission/consent) and blocked out any NBC programming aired on Detroit's WDIV-TV (also carried on cable) with infomercials from QVC. WNWO's analog and high-definition channels were replaced by those of CBET-DT (the CBC Television O&O) in nearby Windsor, Ontario, Canada. This allowed Buckeye to provide coverage of the 2014 Winter Olympics and the 2014 Stanley Cup playoffs via CBC to their customers. Cable coverage of both properties on NBCU's cable properties such as NBCSN and CNBC was unaffected by the dispute, as NBCUniversal's carriage agreements for their cable networks were unrelated in whole to the WNWO dispute.

On July 14, 2014, the carriage dispute between Sinclair Broadcast Group and Buckeye CableSystem officially ended with the two parties coming up with a new two-year agreement. As a result of the agreement, Buckeye CableSystem subscribers in the Toledo area began receiving the WNWO-TV signal once again. CBET, whose standard-definition channel was part of the Buckeye CableSystem line-up prior to the dispute, had both versions remaining on the system, though relocated to different channel positions.^[3]

References