Time Warner Cable gives SoCal customers two more HD channels -- for two weeks only

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Well, Time Warner Cable customers, there’s good news and there’s bad news. For those of you frustrated by the high-definition channel lineup that your cable company provides, Time Warner is bequeathing upon you USA and CNBC (You’ll also be able to watch Olympic programming on KNBC HD and Universal HD, which you probably already have).

The bad news? The channels are only offered for the duration of the Olympics, and you’ll be able to watch only Olympic programming.

This time, though, you can’t really blame Time Warner. Spokeswoman Patricia Fregoso attributed the absence of CNBC and USA in high-def to ‘contract negotiations.’ In short, Time Warner doesn’t have the rights to broadcast USA and CNBC in HD after (or before) the Olympics. ‘We’re able to offer it now, but it’s not a permanent solution,’ she said.

The short blip in HD offerings still irks consumers. ‘It’s so frustrating because it’s only temporary,’ said Edward Hunter, a Gardena resident who has complained to Time Warner about the lack of high-def offerings. ‘We’re still getting less channels than people with other providers.’

Hunter has given up on calling the cable company to complain. He says he gets frustrated with all the prompts, and then ‘I get no resolution.’ He said he was told he’d get more channels Nov. 23.

It wouldn’t do much good to call about the temporary high-def offerings, though. A Time Warner customer who doesn’t want her name used (she works for HBO, a subsidiary of Time Warner, the media giant that is spinning off Time Warner Cable, and she worried about getting in trouble) said her TiVo notified her that she had received the two new high-def channels, but they didn’t show up on her TV. When she called the cable provider to ask about the new channels, the customer service representatives she spoke with didn’t know anything about the new Olympics-only channels, although they said they’d received numerous calls inquiring about them. No supervisor was available, she was told.