The following is the letter I wrote on Wednesday to Comcast's customer service, in addition to the CEO and other important executives.

Comcast customer service & concerned executives, I have recently been considering switching my home Internet service

to Comcast from [other provider]. At the present time I feel that [other provider's] prices are outrageously high, and am positive Comcast would be able to provide service of equal or greater quality at a much cheaper price. Given that we have television and landline phone service in our house it only makes sense to consider Comcast’s "triple play" option of bundling services for an even greater discount. However, it has come to my attention that you are now playing politics with your cable service. Fox News channel, featured much lower than MSNBC on the channel number lineup, is continuing to be part of Comcast’s "Digital Starter Package" while MSNBC has been relegated to the "Digital Classic Lineup," meaning that customers will be required to pay an extra $17/month ($204/year) to have a balanced choice of news programs. In light of these developments I am choosing not to switch to Comcast service for any of our needs. If you should decide to offer MSNBC in the same basic cable package that Fox News is a part of, please contact me so that I can again consider switching to Comcast. Until that time, I would rather pay higher prices knowing that I am not supporting such a blatantly biased programming decision. Regards, [anima]

In filling out the appropriate form on their customer service page, I mentioned where it was that I lived (which is not Jacksonville, FL). However, the initial diarist had mentioned Jacksonville, and I'm guessing Comcast got the what for from customers specifically about this choice regarding their Jacksonville market. Last night I got the following message.

Thank you for the email. First and foremost, I wanted to let you know

that today we restored access to MSNBC for all of our digital cable

customers in the Jacksonville, Florida area. Please know that this week's disruption was not at all targeted at MSNBC - it was due to some changes to our digital channel security system.

This system ensures customers receive the channels that are part of the

video package to which they subscribe. This issue was isolated to the

Jacksonville area, and we have no reason to believe that Comcast

customers in any other areas experienced any interruptions of MSNBC. Also, moving forward, we will be notifying customers that MSNBC will

become part of the Digital Starter service in the Jacksonville area.

Digital Starter is our most widely available level of digital service.

Customers who have our full basic video service can contact us to

receive Digital Starter, which is priced the same as our full basic

video service and includes one digital set-top box at no additional

cost. Thank you again for bringing this issue to our attention. Sincerely,

[name withheld]

Looks like the complaints worked. I just don't buy their explanation of "changes to our digital channel security system." Exactly how would that relate to offering one channel at no extra cost while offering a competitive channel at an extra $200?

Anyway, I'm glad it worked.

UPDATE: fixed title, and typo in intro, per comments below.

UPDATE 2: Given that this worked, and given the myriad comments below about MSNBC being "ghettoized" in other Comcast areas and on dish networks, it seems only appropriate that these efforts be extended to other providers and other geographic areas.

I'm planning on following up with Comcast about their offerings in other areas, and to let them know that my comment was not specific to Jacksonville - I was talking about what they provide in all markets.

UPDATE 3: I've been speaking with a higher-up in Comcast's customer service dept. via email, and that person claims the following:

As there area transitions to digital, all channels currently part of 'expanded basic' (channels 30-100) will be part of the Digital Starter package. Today the 2 packages are the same price and the first full feature box is free. So they can easily receive the channel now by obtaining a box.

This was said explicitly in regard to Atlanta and New Hampshire, two areas mentioned in comments below and areas I mentioned in emails because I have family members there.

Anybody from those areas know of the veracity of these comments? Is this person being truthful?