Local cable company Conestoga Enterprise Incorporated expanded its coverage of the 2002 Olympic Winter Games after numerous complaints from customers who were unable to watch their favorite events.

One person who was delayed in watching the Olympics was William Rusk, a State College resident. Rusk said CEI showed the games on a single channel.

"My main problem with CEI is that the Olympics are only being shown on NBC. At the same time other cable providers, such as Adelphia, are not only showing a number of Olympic games aired on NBC, but also games aired on stations such as CNBC and MSNBC," Rusk said.

CEI is not airing the games on CNBC or MSNBC, instead they are showing other programming on those channels.

Aaron Wentzel, marketing coordinator for CEI said, "It is extremely more expensive for us to carry another NBC station. CEI is not in the same situation as Adelphia, where we could afford it."

Some CEI customers said they leave their homes to view particular events.

"I watch all the events except for figure skating. It becomes an inconvenience when you are a customer, and yet you must go somewhere else to see the games," said Vaughn Zimmerman, a State College resident and Rusk's neighbor.

At the start of the Olympics, Zimmerman said, listings on the TV Guide Channel showed CNBC and MSNBC as airing Olympic events. However, when he watched those channels, he was met with alternate programming. After several people complained to CEI, the listings were removed entirely from the channel.

Zimmerman called his cable provider twice in the last week. Representatives at CEI told him they either didn't know why the games were aired on other channels, or mentioned a type of programming contract as a reason CEI couldn't air the same content, he said.

For CEI to carry the games shown on CNBC and MSNBC, CEI needed to fill out authorization forms and gain the correct equipment to shift the position of their cable satellite toward another satellite in orbit.

"We had a lot of problems with authorization forms and equipment cost," Wentzel said.

For CEI to pay for the extra coverage, as well as find the channel capacity, the company added Shop NBC, Wentzel said.

Shop NBC is a home shopping network that sells NBC memorabilia with all the revenues going to NBC, he said. Because CEI carries the station, the company receives a price break on airing all the Olympic games, making it possible for the company to show the games, Wentzel said.

After the complaints, CEI scrambled to get the rest of the games up in time, he said. Since CEI made the deal with Shop NBC, all of the Olympic events are being aired and Wentzel said the cable provider will air all of the Olympic Winter Games in 2006.