NBC Boston channel speculation.

[mvcg66b3r]

You'd have to wonder if NBC could swap Ch. 60 for either 48 or 62... pleasing regulators by staying at one station in the Boston market, while instantly solving the signal problem. Does NBC still have a stake in ion?

Channel 48 (WYDN Worcester) is on a non-commercial allocation.

 

[dhoule]

Maybe Cox would act like a smart real estate person and instead of flipping houses, flip stations. Could Cox sell to NBC and make a nice profit after just buying Channel 25 last year. Could it be NBC 25 and Fox 7?

 

[Bill_W]

That is a "what if" with no basis in reality, based on NBC's statements (or lack of same).

NBC says its new station will be over-the-air and not cable-only and added in an email, "We are committed to expanding our over-the-air coverage of the market and are currently looking at a variety of options to accomplish that."

OK, don't buy the station, negotiate to put NBC-Boston simulcast on the DT-2 channel. This station already has a relationship with NBC with COZI being broadcast. Or WTMU-LP finally goes digital and NBC-Boston is simulcast there.

 

[K.M. Richards]

You'd have to wonder if NBC could swap Ch. 60 for either 48 or 62... pleasing regulators by staying at one station in the Boston market, while instantly solving the signal problem. Does NBC still have a stake in ion?

Channel 48 (WYDN Worcester) is on a non-commercial allocation.

Commercial and non-commercial allocations have been swapped before. One that comes to mind is when channels 14 and 60 in the Bay Area swapped back in the 1970s. That is referenced in the history of channel 32 at the History of UHF Television site: http://www.uhftelevision.com/articles/kqec.html

I know, shameless plug.

 

[mvcg66b3r]

WHDH Pulls Out the Big Guns in Bid to Stay NBC

Ed Ansin, owner of Boston NBC affiliate WHDH, has made it clear he will not let go of his NBC affiliation without a fight. In his latest appeal, Ansin has enlisted some heavy political power to tug at our TV watching heartstrings.

“We don’t want to see a day when there’s a kid in Brockton, a poor kid, that wants to watch the Patriots on Sunday night and they don’t have access to NBC for free on their local television station and they don’t subscribe to cable,” said Massachusetts Senator Edward Markey. “We have to make sure that kid and every kid and every adult in our region has access to free over the air television.”

http://www.adweek.com/tvspy/whdh-pulls-out-the-big-guns-in-bid-to-stay-nbc/161486

 

[ChocoMingo]

I made a petition to save WHDH's NBC affiliation. If you want to sign, click on this link. I want an NBC station that can be watched everywhere, not half of Boston. Even the station owner wants to save WHDH's affiliaton.

https://www.change.org/p/nbcuniversal-keep-whdh-as-nbc-so-people-don-t-get-cable-next-year?recruiter=349982928&utm_source=share_petition&utm_medium=copylink

 

[K.M. Richards]

I made a petition to save WHDH's NBC affiliation.

If that works, it will be the first time in the history of broadcasting that a petition -- online or paper -- got a major media company to reverse a decision like this.

Comcast could care less about a petition at Change.org, but if it makes you feel better to make a futile try, have at it.

 

[JustinT]

The "poor kid in Brockton" probably gets WJAR just fine, though.

 

[VoiceofWayne]

I wonder what role WJAR will play in all this. This does diminish Ansin and Markey's "poor kid" argument. At the end of the day, I can't see NBC trying to serve a top 10 market with a rimshot signal and a translator. NRJ (the owners of WMFP 62) should be getting a phone call from NBC any day now (if not already)....
On the other hand, Ansin owns 12mhz (Channels 41 and 42) of valuable contiguous spectrum and could just sell the whole thing for a HUGE amount of $$$.

 

[Markxxx]

I wonder what role WJAR will play in all this. This does diminish Ansin and Markey's "poor kid" argument. At the end of the day, I can't see NBC trying to serve a top 10 market with a rimshot signal and a translator.

Why not? They did it in San Francisco with KNTV. Then they moved the transmitter. This same thing could play out here easily.

 

[KeithE4]

Why not? They did it in San Francisco with KNTV. Then they moved the transmitter. This same thing could play out here easily.

San Jose is part of the SF/Oakland market, so that was OK even though KNTV had been effectively the ABC affiliate for Monterrey/Salinas at one time. Providence and Boston are separate markets. No way will a move of any station from Providence to Boston be allowed by the FCC.

 

[JustinT]

No way will a move of any station from Providence to Boston be allowed by the FCC.

But let's say NBC pays iHeart a few bucks to re-license 101.1 to Merrimack and maintain first-local service... Could WNEU change COL and be moved closer to Boston?

 

[mvcg66b3r]

But let's say NBC pays iHeart a few bucks to re-license 101.1 to Merrimack and maintain first-local service... Could WNEU change COL and be moved closer to Boston?

But they still couldn't move the transmitter - see earlier posts.

BTW, Tegna just renewed with NBC for 17 stations - including KUSA Denver and KPNX Phoenix. Both cities also have Telemundo O&Os. So don't expect "NBC 25" Denver or "NBC 39" Phoenix anytime soon.
http://www.tvnewscheck.com/article/91525/tegna-and-nbc-sign-new-affiliation-deal

 

[KML0224]

Tegna (Gannett?) also owns WCSH-TV (NBC) channel 6 of Portland and WLBZ-TV (NBC) channel 2 of Bangor. No Telemundo affiliates in Maine though.

NBC owns WVIT-TV channel 30 of New Britain/Hartford. Hartford/New Haven has a low-power station for Telemundo, but a full-power station for Univision via WUVN-TV channel 18 of Hartford.

 

[mvcg66b3r]

WHDH Suing Comcast Over Loss Of Affiliation

Sunbeam Television, owner of WHDH Boston, today filed suit against Comcast in federal court in Boston over NBC’s January announcement that it intends to terminate its 22-year affiliation with WHDH at the end of 2016. NBC is a unit of Comcast.

NBC plans to create an O&O in the market, using WNEU, which now airs NBC's Telemundo.

WHDH says that WNEU’s signal does not reach nearly four million greater Boston residents who currently receive WHDH’s signal, including residents in primarily minority communities such as Roxbury, Dorchester, Mattapan and Brockton. Most of those residents, WHDH claims, would have to purchase cable service from Comcast if they want to keep receiving NBC programming.

WHDH says that when Comcast bought NBC in 2011, “there was widespread concern about the impact this unprecedented accumulation of power in the television industry would have on viewers and other market participants.

"Particularly in markets like Boston, where Comcast is the dominant cable provider, citizen groups, industry participants and government agencies expressed concern that Comcast would seek to leverage its cable holdings and in the process degrade its broadcasting presence and diminish the important public service role that broadcast television stations historically have played.”

To address those concerns, Comcast promised its NBC affiliates (including WHDH) that it would negotiate affiliate extensions in good faith such that over the air access would be maintained, and cable interests would not influence those negotiations. As part of the FCC’s approval of Comcast’s acquisition of NBC, the FCC adopted these same conditions in order to protect the public interest.

WHDH said that it believes that “Comcast has violated these conditions. It also believes that Comcast’s actions violate Massachusetts law prohibiting unfair and deceptive business practices. Finally, WHDH believes that Comcast’s actions violate federal and state antitrust laws because they have enabled Comcast to increase its monopoly power in the Boston television market, and the resulting decrease in competition will harm consumers, advertisers and other broadcasters.”

In its suit, WHDH is seeking an injunction and an order requiring Comcast to comply with its obligations under its agreement with WHDH and the FCC order. WHDH will also seek damages.

http://www.tvnewscheck.com/article/93008/whdh-suing-comcast-over-loss-of-affiliation

 

[Ccook55]

Two Boston stations' names have been bantered about as possible NBC if it leaves WHDH. WGBX/channel 44 (PBS--NBC could either buy it outright or negotiate to put it on .2) and WBPX/channel 68 (Ion--ditto).

 

[KML0224]

What about channel 62, which is licensed to Lawrence? Were they mentioned either?

 

[mvcg66b3r]

Two Boston stations' names have been bantered about as possible NBC if it leaves WHDH. WGBX/channel 44 (PBS--NBC could either buy it outright or negotiate to put it on .2) and WBPX/channel 68 (Ion--ditto).

Hmmm...Like WYDN, WGBX is noncommercial, so it would take some maneuvering at the FCC. On the other hand, WBPX would be an option, as it has satellites in New Hampshire and on Cape Cod.

 

[K.M. Richards]

WGBX/channel 44 (PBS--NBC could either buy it outright or negotiate to put it on .2)

I do not believe that under the current Rules a commercial operation can use a non-commercial's transmitting facilities in any way, even the subchannels. In the repacking scheme, where stations will in many cases share a transmitter, the Rules will very likely be different.

Similarly, for a commercial broadcaster to purchase a non-commercial station and convert it to commercial operation would require a Rulemaking to change the allocation table to reflect same.

This is therefore far from a simple solution, and I suggest that wherever you heard that proposal it came from someone not knowledgeable on the subject.

 

[mvcg66b3r]

Comcast asks court to throw out Channel 7's NBC affiliate lawsuit

Comcast wants a federal court to throw out WHDH’s lawsuit against the cable giant over its refusal to extend the station’s NBC affiliation, arguing that WHDH signed a contract that expires in January and must live by its terms.

WHDH launched the lawsuit in March after NBCUniversal, which is owned by Comcast, announced it was yanking WHDH’s affiliation and starting its own station using NECN, the Comcast-owned regional cable news network, in January 2017. WHDH claimed the move violated antitrust law and Comcast’s agreement with affiliates.

In a response this week, Comcast told a Massachusetts federal court that it should dismiss the suit. WHDH’s affiliation agreement expires in January, and while it could have asked for an automatic renewal, it did not, Comcast contended. “(A) finite contractual affiliation is exactly what WHDH agreed to and now, in fairness, must live by,” it said.

http://www.bizjournals.com/boston/n...t-asks-court-to-throw-out-channel-7s-nbc.html