File this under "Ill Considered" and "Misconfiguration"

Okay, here's one that defies all logic and explanation.

At 2:00 AM, Spike broadcasts Star Trek: Deep Space 9 (DS9). This is an hour-long show including commercials. Comcast in Boston airs Spike on channel 33.

Comcast in Boston also airs EWTN (religious programming) on channel 33.

Because the two stations can't occupy the same channel at the same time, there is a cutover from one to the other. Inexplicably, Comcast performs this cutover at 2:50 AM, at which time DS9 is 83% of the way through. Viewers who invested 50 minutes don't get to see the end of the show. This doesn't happen once in a while, it happens every night!

I called Comcast to let them know that this cutover is happening in the middle of the show. First of all, the customer service rep I spoke with could not understand why this was a problem. Hello? Is anybody home? Or is your head just hollow? A rep who doesn't understand the concept of watching a TV show in its entirety has no business working the tech support desk for a cable TV company. Is it any wonder that Comcast, a monopoly, has the reputation that it does? Okay, getting back on track. With some prodding, the rep inquired about this further at her end, and apparently nobody there cares enough to do anything about this. They can't explain why the cutover happens when it does, they can't seem to change it, and they don't seem to care.

My life will go on if I never get to watch the 2 AM showing of DS9. But it boggles the mind that my expensive cable subscription gets paid to Spike for shows that I'm supposed to be able to watch but can't because of a nonsensical cutover that Comcast neither can explain nor care about. This is digital cable, there are a zillion and one channels of capacity, and yet two stations have to share a channel.

Unbelievable.