Television

Viewers may experience brief interruptions in television service due to the sun’s energy disrupting the signals from the satellites used to deliver programming. Sun outages take place twice a year: during the last few days of February through the first two weeks of March, and during the last few days of September through the first two weeks of October, and usually occur between noon and 5:00 pm, lasting for a few minutes. This is beyond our control and we thank you for your patience.

Yes, Arvig carries NFL RedZone from NFL Network on channel 600. The channel is active during football season only, and is not included in any plan lineup. This channel is a separate, one-time purchase each season.

Watch on Arvig channels Antenna TV (Fargo) & KSTC (MPLS). View your channel card.

Visit mshsl.org for a complete schedule.

A 1992 federal law empowers broadcasters, including corporations that own TV stations such as ABC, CBS, FOX and NBC, to charge fees to local cable providers like Arvig, for the right to carry or “retransmit” their signals.

Broadcasters are facing shrinking audiences, and therefore, are increasing rates to make up for lost advertising revenue.

Plus, large corporations own more and more local TV stations and use their size and power to their advantage: making smaller operators (like Arvig) pay more!

While broadcasters offer their signals for free over the air, cable providers can’t offer these signals to cable customers without their permission. We need to pay fees to the broadcasters to get that permission.

Most contracts are negotiated in either a three or five-year cycle. However, the rate structure on almost all contracts include a yearly incremental increase on the fees we must pay to the content providers for each and every customer on a monthly basis.

Yes. It is very likely, come next year, that your bill will increase again. The contracts we sign are multi-year carriage deals, often requiring us to pay more each year for the remainder of our contract. Rising programming costs affect all providers, including Dish and DirecTV. Streaming platforms, like SlingTV and YouTube TV are also raising prices, citing rising programming fees.

Rising programming costs affect ALL providers, including DIRECTV, Dish, Hulu and other streaming services, and increase your bill every year. We absorb as much of these increases as possible but are not able to cover all of them. We will continue to strive to keep future price increases to a minimum by negotiating hard for you with all programmers.

Arvig is often required to “bundle” cable channels that are highly viewed with additional channels that are less popular. Programmers don’t only force us to pay for these channels, but they also tell us how we have to bundle them for our customers. We don’t think this is fair—and we know you don’t think it is either—but we typically have to agree to these terms in order to continue carriage of your favorite channels. We continue to explore ways to provide you the channels you want at an affordable price.

TVonMySide.com, a website developed by the National Cable Television Cooperative is a resource to help customers understand trends and keep track of disputes related to the cost of cable TV.

As a local business, we can thrive only when we deliver services at the best possible value. We are actively working toward an agreement that does not burden our customers with excessive price increases. With the hundreds of channels we offer our customers, imagine the impact on your monthly bill if we just agreed to pay networks whatever they asked.

Using a negotiating agent like NCTC provides us more buying power than handling the negotiations independently. Because NCTC represents 700 providers who service more than 4 million subscribers total, they can often get us a better deal during negotiations.

The only way these networks will be lost is if the broadcaster(s) turn them off. We expect to have to pay for their services even if they pull their signals for a few days. However, if we don’t have to pay for these signals for any period of time, we will review our options to offer a refund of that amount to customers.

Streaming allows you to view or listen to content immediately over the internet without downloading, storing or managing any files. This requires the user to be connected to the internet while the content is flowing.

For the best experience, you must subscribe to an adequate speed of Arvig internet service; a typical Arvig WiFi TV stream requires 5Mb.

Because Arvig WiFi TV is a streaming service, it requires the use of your home IP address and home network to watch live TV. You can, however, watch and set recordings from just about anywhere with a WiFi connection.

Our service includes one stream which can be viewed on one supported screen at a time. To view content on additional screens at the same time, we suggest having a stream for each member of your household—up to seven streams are available.

WiFi TV works on a variety of streaming devices, including the Amazon Fire TV Stick. We recommend using devices you already own and are familiar with, providing they are compatible.

View the most current list here.

When purchasing new devices, be sure to review their technical specifications to confirm they’re compatible with WiFi TV, and meet your expectations.

Yes, the channel lineup includes the local sports, news and weather you know and love.

High Definition refers to the resolution of an image or screen: the higher the resolution, the more detailed the image. Arvig WiFi TV has auto detection capabilities giving you the best picture available at all times.

Yes, WiFi TV comes with 10 hours (more available) of Cloud DVR allowing you to control live TV and record programs.

Cloud DVR does not have the same limitations as a regular DVR set-top box. There is no actual box or wires and cables; instead, the data is stored by Arvig allowing for more storage capacity and the ability to record more shows that air at the same time. Content is stored and accessed based on the user’s login information.

Watch up to the past 72 hours of shows, movies and sports across most of our channels. Although, not all networks have given us permission, and Replay TV is enabled/disabled on an individual show and/or network basis.

You can set recordings from any TV, or other supported devices, that are connected to WiFi TV.

This is dependent upon how many hours are in your plan. 10 hours are included; up to 200 hours are available. To see how much space you have, press Menu on the remote control, go to Profile and look in the upper right corner of the screen. Time used and total time available are shown in hours.

The Cloud DVR will record as many programs as are scheduled at once, however, it will store only as many hours as you have available. Older programs are erased automatically to make room for new recordings when Cloud DVR storage limit is reached.

Yes, you can record multiple programs while watching live TV on other channels, or other recordings.

Due to processing delays, every recording will add a buffer so you don’t miss any of your program.

Yes, time used will include the extra minutes of buffer time.

The Arvig WiFi TV app supports audible voice guides for customers with visual disabilities. To set up this feature, go to the Arvig WiFi Voice Guide Instructions page.

We recommend a hardwired internet connection for the best performance. See your device’s operating instructions for details.