Students in NIU’s residence halls could see Comcast SportsNet and other channels on their TVs in the future if enough residents respond to a Residence Hall Association survey.

RHA will hand out a cable television survey this week to gain perspective on how residence hall students feel about their current television lineup.

“Over the past year, there have been upgrades to the hardware that brings the cable system to the halls,” RHA President Keith Kruchten said.

Before the upgrades, the hardware system was antiquated and that limited the number of channels available to the students, he said.The cable television survey will focus on three parts: which channels students would like to see dropped, which channels they would like added and how much more residents are willing to pay for cable.

Recently, students have voiced their opinions about wanting to have Comcast SportsNet in the halls.

RHA is aware of the concern, and the channel is one of the options to add on the survey. Other channels students can select to add include HBO, the Sundance Film Channel, Independent Film Channel, Tech TV or American Movie Classics.

The primary limitation in adding Comcast SportsNet to the residence hall channel lineup is the cost, Kruchten said. To add Comcast SportsNet to the lineup would double the cost of what students are paying for cable right now, he said. Currently, 35 channels are offered to students for a fee of about $22 per year.

“There hasn’t been a significant change in the television channels within the last 10 years,” said Alex Geer, RHA administrative vice president. Last year, RHA put out a similar survey, but the information was not detailed enough to make a decision on what students wanted done with the television channels.

“Based on the feedback from the student body, decisions will be made about what channels need to be dropped and what channels could be added,” Kruchten said. Geer said if students want Comcast SportsNet added, they have to be willing to pay for it.

“We are giving them the choice to vote if they want Comcast SportsNet with the survey, and if there is a majority of people willing to pay the higher price for cable, we will run with the idea,” Geer said. The surveys will be distributed to students’ mailboxes by the end of the week and will take about two months to tabulate. Any changes to the hall’s television channels could be made as soon as the fall 2005 semester.