Bright House Rolls ‘Start Over’ in Tampa

Bright House Networks said its Tampa Bay, Fla., division will soon launch a Start Over service for digital cable customers, allowing viewers who miss the beginning of a program to start it over by the end of the show by pressing a button on their remote controls.

Time Warner Cable, a close cable partner of Brighthouse, first debuted the Start Over service in November 2005 on its Columbia, S.C. system.

Brighthouse said that its Tampa Bay Division will deploy Start Over on Oct. 24, allowing digital cable customers to use the service with 40 national and local networks.

“There’s nothing like Start Over in the Tampa Bay market,” Bright House Networks Florida Group president John Rigsby said in Friday’s announcement. “It’s convenient, easy to use and available at no additional cost. It’s definitely going to change the way our digital cable customers watch TV.”

Brighthouse said it will first launch Start Over in the Tampa Day Division’s Manatee County service area. The feature will also be introduced in Pasco, Hernando, Citrus, Hillborough, Polk and Pinnellas Counties by the end of the year, the cable operator added.

National cable networks that can be accessed using the Start Over service are ABC Family, Animal Planet, BET, Bravo, Cartoon Network, CNBC, CNN, Comedy Central, CMT, Court TV, Disney Channel, ESPN, ESPN2, ESPN Classic, Flix, Fox Movie Channel, Fox News Channel, FX, GAS, MSNBC, MTV, National Geographic Channel, Nickelodeon, Noggin, Oxygen, Sci Fi, Speed, Spike TV, TBS, TNT, Travel Channel, TCM, TV Land, USA Network, VH1 and Versus.

The Start Over service will also work with regional sports channel Sun Sports, and local news channel Bay New 9 and Tampa TV stations WFTS-TV, an ABC affiliate, and Fox affiliate WTVT-TV.