Local

Signals could vanish for Brighthouse customers without converter boxes

ORLANDO, Fla. — A major change is happening with Brighthouse Cable that could cause your television signal to vanish.

Channel 9's Steve Barrett learned about a new piece of equipment viewers are going to need if they want to keep watching cable TV.

"Don't freak out," said Donald Forbes of Brighthouse. "It's probably just the fact that we're converting over to an all-digital signal, which means they're going to have that beautiful all-digital signal coming through."

For those families who have lots of televisions in the house and several connected directly to the wall, a converter box is an easy fix to the problem.

"This is for those folks that have a TV in the garage or on the porch that's connected straight to the wall and it's very easy," said Forbes.

Brighthouse doesn't track how many TVs families connect directly to their walls, but that connection won't work soon, so the tiny converter boxes are being made available for free.  Each customer can get two free boxes through the beginning of next year.

Beyond that, the price is $2 per month for each box.

"What you're talking about is a pure HD signal as well that's coming through the video and the audio," said Forbes. "It means you have more channels and more choices at a higher resolution."

The new signal will also deliver more content to all your TVs, including WFTV, in high definition.