'U' Channel 72 now shows movies continuously By Elizabeth Kassab Daily Staff Reporter It's inevitable. Walking down residence hall corridors at anytime of night, students can be seen curled up on beanbags and futons, their eyes glued to the television. But now, students in residence halls have expanded television options after the Residence Hall Association added two new channels to its television line-up. "I like to watch the movie channel after a long night of studying," said LSA first-year student Mike Ferguson. Students in residence halls have been watching Channel 72, RHA's original movie channel, since 1995. Students who have an insatiable craving to watch movies at times when most people are sleeping have had their prayers answered with the expanded movie showings. Starting this semester, RHA starts a new film every three hours on Channel 72 - all day long. "We have enough videos from our distributor to accommodate a 24-hour format," said Michael Clancy, University Housing's coordinator of broadcasting. "The RHA suggested that a 24-hour format would be best," he said. Instead of the previous schedule of four movies a day on weekdays and five on weekends, eight movies are broadcasted every day. The University's contract with Swank Distribution allows it to show 20 new movies each month - a total of 160 per year. The University is allowed to keep the movies for three months, which means that no more than 60 movies can be broadcasted at any one time during the year. Currently, RHA is scheduled to broadcast 56 movies, Clancy said. Interested students can share feedback about the newly-added channels and look at the current movie schedule at RHA's Website at http://www.housing.umich.edu. Clancy said students in residence halls have other television options, including Channel 76, which was introduced last fall as a college TV network, showing music videos, news and sports. Broadcasted on television monitors in the dining halls of Bursley, Stockwell, Mary Markley and South Quad residence halls, the channel is now available with the regular University Housing cable package offered in each of the University residence halls. In addition, MTV's second network, M2, entered the residence halls yesterday and can now be viewed on Channel 77. And now the University's student television station, WOLV-TV, is broadcasted throughout Ann Arbor, after Media One began broadcasting station programming last week, said WOLV-TV producer Linda Wong, a Business senior. WOLV-TV will broadcast a half-hour news show at 10 p.m., Sunday through Wednesday, Wong said. From Thursday through Saturday, the slot is filled by the station's sports coverage, she added. Originally on page 3A in the 1-19-2000 issue of the Daily.