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Beware Of Channel Changes: Playmates Turn Up Where Government Used To Be

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By WALT BELCHER, The Tampa Tribune

Published: December 11, 2007

In the great channel shake-up that is going on with Bright House Networks today, Hillsborough County subscribers don't get a break when it comes to getting E! separated from C-SPAN2.

For years, this odd combo has shared the same channel space. It's politics in the daytime and pop culture at night.

C-SPAN2, which features coverage of Senate hearings, runs from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Then E! kicks in and runs from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m.

Today, this odd couple has moved from channel 51 to channel 22, formerly the home of Hillsborough County Government Television.

If you haven't been paying attention, and you click to tune in to see the next Hillsborough County Commission meeting or a Planning Commission meeting, you might be surprised to find something such as "The Girls Next Door," the E! series that follows the adventures of three of Hugh Hefner's Playboy Playmates.

After a few minutes of that, you may not care that the Hillsborough County government channel has moved to channel 622. All the access channels are up in the 600s now.

Bright House officials say the move is an attempt to make the lineups more uniform in the seven-county area served by the company (see story in today's Metro section).

But the lineups won't be the same everywhere. And one of the differences is that E!/C-SPAN2 thing. In Citrus County, Bright House subscribers face a similar odd matchup in which C-SPAN2 is hooked up with VH1.

These pairings were set up eons ago by whatever company was offering cable service at the time, and apparently subscribers are stuck with them for now.

Bright House spokesman Joe Durkin says there is no room on the current basic and standard tiers on the Hillsborough system for E! and C-SPAN2 to have separate channel spaces 24/7.

To do this would mean something else in the first 99 channel slots would have to be dropped or moved to the higher digital tiers, he says. I would vote for moving Jewelry TV or any of the shopping channels to the 900 range.

PUBLIC ACCESS: Speaking of the 900 range, the two public access channels in Hillsborough County have been moved from channels 19 and 20 to channels 949 and 950.

"We are the very back of the line now," says Louise Thompson, executive director of Speak Up Tampa Bay Public Access Television Inc.

She notes that the government and education access channels are in the 600 range, where local broadcast stations have their HDTV channels.

"We are stuck where people will have trouble finding us," she says.

She expects that public access will lose some viewers as a result. The move to the end of the cable line is another blow to public access, which is facing financial hardships now that Hillsborough County commissioners voted to cut its share of funding ($355,443) from the 2007-08 budget.

"QUEEN SIZED": Nikki Blonsky is following up her role in "Hairspray" with a meaningful Lifetime movie about an overweight girl who runs for homecoming queen.

"Queen Sized" debuts Jan. 12 on the cable network. Blonsky, 19, was a high school senior when she won the role in the film version of the Broadway musical. She was working in an ice cream shop, and her biggest roles had been in the school's drama department.

In "Hairspray," which played in theaters this past summer, she held her own with John Travolta, Christopher Walken, Michelle Pfeiffer and Queen Latifah.

In "Queen Sized," she plays a senior named Maggie who suffers from a lack of self-esteem because she is not skinny, beautiful or rich. Some mean kids at her school enter her name in the homecoming queen contest as a prank. With support from her mother (Annie Potts), Maggie stands up to the bullies and makes a run for the crown. The movie is based on a true story.

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