CTV: It’s No Laughing Matter at Century Cable

HA! and the Comedy Channel merged Monday to form a new cable comedy channel called CTV, but the 160,000 subscribers to Century Cable are now getting no comedy channel at all.

Century, which serves residents of Santa Monica, Beverly Hills and Hollywood, had been one of the few cable operators in the nation that carried both HA! and the Comedy Channel. But it declined to pick up the new channel because the company had been dissatisfied with its two predecessors, said Steve Rosenthal, Century’s director of marketing.

“There are so many channels out there that have come and gone and we don’t know what strengths this new channel is going to have,” Rosenthal said. “We want to take a look at it as well as at all of our other options.”

The news that Century was not carrying the new comedy venture came as a surprise Tuesday to CTV spokesman Tony Fox. He said that any cable operator that had been carrying either or both of the original services was supposed to switch to CTV Monday. Century was the only operator in the country that had failed to do so, he said.