Showtime, HBO and Cinemax are a few of the channels students can now watch in their residence halls.

The Department of Residence Services has renewed its contract with Campus Televideo to give residents a chance to order more than 200 channels, which include movie and music channels.

Subscriptions come in individual tiers of digital cable channels, Residence Services Director Betsy Joseph said.

Tiers include sports, movies, premium services and Music Choice and foreign language.

Time Warner also has two High Definition tiers along with On Demand channels.

The new services became available after Campus Televideo renewed its contract with Kent State, said Gregg Perkowski, senior LAN administrator of Residential Information Services and Computing Office. Time Warner is responsible for providing the cable service, he said.

Joseph said when she became director three years ago, she wanted to look at the contract with Time Warner and Campus Televideo for any necessary changes.

She said she wanted to make sure “students had the opportunity to subscribe to those services.”

The new digital cable service has been in high demand with students, Perkowski said. He said the Time Warner office in Kent reported that more than 300 students came in Aug. 29.

Perkowski said the On Demand services are not available yet.

Time Warner still needs to make “extensive upgrades on their end” so students won’t see “degradation in the service,” he said.

Time Warner referred all questions to the Department of Residence Services.

The On Demand services are expected to be available “hopefully by the end of September,” Joseph said.

The basic cable service which is offered to all residents has been upgraded as well.

Four new channels have been added to the service, she said.

MTV, Discovery and CNN will all have Spanish language channels. College Sports Network will be available to showcase Kent State athletics.

Some students believe the basic cable service seems to offer sufficient services for residents.

“You have all the stuff necessary to keep you up to date,” Kristen Tassone, senior theater major, said. “What more do you need?”

Tassone said she doesn’t watch TV often enough to order the digital cable channels.

“To have to pay for TV, it would have to be something I really watch,” said Tassone. She said she would get Showtime so she could “get caught up with ‘The L Word.'”

Students are able to sign up for any of the cable services any time during the year. Students must sign up in the Time Warner Cable office in Kent on Main Street.

Contact room and board reporter Noelle Pennyman at [email protected].