Cable TV Theory - Could use help from you

Here are two maps, one that shows you the cable provider for every town in NJ (these were exhausting stats to compile) and then another which ranks the municipalities North or South based on the Cable TV theory.



Again, this is certainly the most exhaustive map I have created, but helpful if you subscribe to the Cable TV Theory, which states:

If you add up a town's number of channels from Philadelphia vs. those from New York then whichever one that you have more of, would give you a North or South Jersey town. NJ channels are a wash.

The towns in Hunterdon and Warren along the Delaware River that have Service Electric Cable pretty much are even - they can get all major networks from every city. In some Mercer towns, they were missing NBC 4 from NYC, so that put them "South." In many Ocean County towns, they were missing NBC 10 from Philly, but had all the New York stations - so that put them - "North."

Cable TV is very important because it affects which area you tend to identify with and has a big effect on what sports teams you may support . . . a 5 year old kid who can't watch the Yankees on TV everyday has a tremendous percentage chance increase of not becoming a fan of theirs compared to a kid who can. Then again, now there's satellite and you do have overlap in many areas - but fun nonetheless.

The overlap gets very murky in some areas. There are parts of Mercer that are unclear. Hopewell (Comcast) gets all equally. But parts of Princeton get Comcast and others - Patriot. Trenton, Hamilton, Yardville, Robbinsville seem to get Optimum Cablevision AND Comcast.

This is quite common around the state, but it's still confusing. In Princeton on Patriot, they're even as far as NYC and Philly channels, but with Comcast - they are out one NYC station. In southern Mercer - if residents have Optimum Cablevision - they're even, but with Comcast - they are down one NYC channel. I also realize with Verizon coming into the game and other companies always expanding - that this line is ever changing. But as of Dec. 2007 - it is pretty close to accurate. If you live in Mercer (or see any other mistakes in other places) and can help clear this up, please email me or comment.