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The Programming Disputes Thread

unclehonkey said:
interesting as they are one of the last locally owned network station. from northpine

A retransmission consent dispute took NBC affiliate KNBN/21 (Rapid City) off DirecTV as of Jan. 1. KNBN is owned by Rapid Broadcasting and is the only locally-owned station in the Black Hills, as well as one of the last locally-owned network affiliates in the country. The Rapid City market covers the western third of South Dakota as well as parts of Wyoming and Montana.
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back as of the 4th
http://www.newscenter1.tv/story/37423322/newscenter1-is-back-on-directv
 
While Northwest Broadcasting is still off Charter after over a week. A lot of pi$$ed viewers in Yuma and Eureka missing out on the Olympics. The Daytona 500 is coming soon and I'm sure a lot of local viewers won't be happy if KCYU/KFFX is still off. Thank goodness I have the Zenith DTT901 and a digital antenna.
 
RadioPatrol said:
http://www.adweek.com/tvspy/city-to-seek-damages-from-spectrum-during-northwest-blackout/200447

The city of Yuma is Suing Spectrum over the Northwest contract dispute.
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I think that cities should do this more often when there are extended disputes with cable systems, and it should also be in their contracts that extended disputes can be grounds for cancellation and moving to another cable system at any time. Perhaps more actions like this would stop a lot of this garbage at least with cable systems that are given contracts by cities.

Like I've said before I believe that Charter has taken on Time Warner's tactics in contract disputes since the merger and that's not good.
 
Will_H_69_9 said:
would this be consider a act of censorship for the Pro Gun people and a certain political party that has really strong ties to it.
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https://www.aol.com/article/news/20...outube-urged-to-pull-nra-tv-channel/23370182/

Apple, AT&T and Youtube are also facing boycott threats over the handling of the NRATV feed thats on their platforms. But it is one of the rare cases where a broadcast/streaming contract issue becomes political because of the fact that Apple, Youtube and Amazon Fire TV are facing investor pressure and political pressure from the Miami Area mass shooting victims support groups to pull out the broadcasting contract from the NRATV or face additional backlash in the form of investor boycott due to connections to the NRA-TV.
 
https://www.nraila.org/contributors/cam-edwards

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/companies-sticking-by-the-nra_us_5a903e4be4b01e9e56bb57af


Update even Sirius XM is under pressure over its broadcasting contracts with the NRA for one of their talk shows "cam and Co".


SiriusXM

Sirius airs a show from NRA TV called “Cam & Co” on its conservative Patriot station, where host Cam Edwards discusses current events in terms of how they might affect gun rights. A company spokesperson did not immediately return a request for comment.
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anotherguy said:
I think that cities should do this more often when there are extended disputes with cable systems, and it should also be in their contracts that extended disputes can be grounds for cancellation and moving to another cable system at any time. Perhaps more actions like this would stop a lot of this garbage at least with cable systems that are given contracts by cities.

Like I've said before I believe that Charter has taken on Time Warner's tactics in contract disputes since the merger and that's not good.
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I disagree cities shouldn't take action since they are wrong taking a side on a dispute that has nothing to do with them as the city of Yuma is doing taking Northwest side in the matter. Let Charter Spectrum & Northwest handle the matter as it's up to them to get a deal done it the city which they should be getting important issues done not taking a side in a Retrans fight and I doubt that cities taking action on a cable company is going to end disputes. I don't see Charter taking TWC tactics in disputes they have gotten deals done with NBC, Viacom, Fox none of the channels were taken off they always seem to get an 11TH hour deal or extension done.
 
Will_H_69_9 said:
would this be consider a act of censorship for the Pro Gun people and a certain political party that has really strong ties to it.
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It's not gonna be worded as censorship if you are Amazon, Apple TV, SiriusXM, YoutubeTV, Roku and Directv. It will be treated like another contract dispute and negotiations with the Victims Rights group of the Miami Area Mass Shooting when its in regards to the broadcast contract of NRA-TV.
 
A month has passed since Spectrum took off the NW Broadcasting stations (like KCYU, KYMA and others) - and no end in sight. If not for SyndEx restrictions I'm sure we'd be able to see KCPQ or KPTV in the interim.
 
RadioPatrol said:
https://www.jconline.com/story/news...y-stations-lafayettes-cable-lineup/407606002/

Comcast kills the last Indy stations from lineup for channels owned by Star City Broadcasting.
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Theyre back....for now

https://www.jconline.com/story/news...is-network-stations-back-least-now/410575002/

Comcast chalks up return of WTHR and WRTV, two Indy network affiliates scrubbed last week, to a technical glitch, but won’t say how long they'll last

LAFAYETTE, Ind. – Those bonus telecasts from WTHR and WRTV, back on air a day after Comcast announced it had dumped the Indianapolis NBC and ABC affiliates from Lafayette’s cable lineup? They’re going to keep going – at least for the time being, a Comcast spokesman Friday.

What wasn’t clear was whether Comcast was giving in to customer complaints and Indianapolis network affiliates would be back permanently or the return was a temporary glitch.

“We experienced some technical difficulties, so we rolled everything back until we can assess the situation,” Mike Wilson, public relations director for Comcast in Indiana, said Friday afternoon. “We are sorry for any confusion our customers have experienced in the last 48 hours.”

Here’s a quick recap of that 48 hours

On Wednesday, Comcast pulled the plug on WTHR and WRTV, which had been part of an array of Indianapolis network feeds to the Lafayette cable market for decades. The move followed Comcast’s decisions in late 2017 and early 2018 to eliminate Indianapolis Fox affiliate WXIN,CBS affiliate WTTV and the CW (and former CBS) affiliate WISH.

Comcast, in a statement Thursday, chalked up this week’s channel change to the emergence of the three WPBI broadcasts from Lafayette in the past two years by Star City Broadcasting. Star City’s stations – positioned on channels 15, 16 and 17 on Comcast’s Lafayette lineup – are affiliated with ABC, Fox and NBC. (WLFI-TV18 in West Lafayette has been a local CBS affiliate for decades, as well.)

By late Thursday afternoon, WTHR and WRTV were back on for Comcast customers in Lafayette.

Complaints from customers railing on Comcast’s decision turned to some hope that the cable provider had heard them.

“I prayed last night it would still be on this morning,” said Jennie Sylva, a Comcast customer in Lafayette. “Now I’m praying it continues. … I’m just thankful it’s back.”

Charles Callahan, another Comcast customer in Lafayette, minced no words: “They’re morons if they don’t get those Indy stations back. … About everyone I know called them about this. Maybe they listened.”

If WTHR was back on permanently, that would have been news to Larry Delia, the station’s general manager. Though, Delia said he knew the station was back on, based on the volume of phone calls his station was fielding Thursday and Friday.

“(Comcast has) not called to tell me they’ve put us back on,” Delia said Friday morning. “I’m guessing I would get that call as a courtesy at some point.”

Delia said he tried to work with Comcast to save WTHR in the Lafayette market. But he said he understood the decision.

Delia said his understanding was that NBC was fine with the idea of two stations airing its programs in Lafayette. But he said Comcast officials told him they didn’t want to devote double the channels to one network and that WPBI qualified as the must-run choice in Lafayette’s designated market area, known as a DMA.

“It’s pretty simple,” Delia said. “It wasn’t something that was a fight. It’s something they saw as practical. … Even though we served that market for years and we knew people would be disappointed, we don’t have a right to force them to air us. They have a right to choose the in-market affiliate. So, they removed us.”

Attempts to reach a station manager at WRTV were not immediately answered.

Wilson declined to comment on whether Comcast had pursued the idea of keeping Indianapolis networks and how much that would cost in retransmission consent fees.
 
One thing I can relate to and agree with is this

Robinson said he’ll miss news out of Indianapolis. He said he watched WRTV regularly – “I like the news team they have and I like (meteorologist) Kevin Gregory.”

“Indy is the state capital,” Robinson said. “We’re just 60 miles away. Sports, events, weather, roads – I’d kind of like to know what’s going on down there. … I don’t think we’re going to get that now.”

Kim Han, a Comcast customer from Lafayette, said she’d miss the Indianapolis presence on the cable lineup.

“I enjoy seeing what is going on in Indy,” Han said. “That is the main reason I turn those channels on, especially for sports related events. I won’t watch these new local news shows and already rarely watch those networks live. I think it is a very bad move for the people of Lafayette.”

Where I live we are an hour + from Minneapolis (60 miles) and 20 minutes from Mankato. We are the Minneapolis market but also get KEYC CBS & FOX sub from Mankato on cable (the headend is maybe 10 miles from Mankato). Mankato is the same way. They get their local (DMA assigned) stations (KEYC CBS/FOX) but also get the Big 4 + My + PBS from Minneapolis (Charter also gets PBS & ABC from Austin, MN which is the Rochester DMA...Consolidated does not)

KEYC news, while having info that is a little more pertinent to us, has pretty much the same stories (verbatim) on the 6, 9 (on FOX) and 10 newscasts. They rarely talk about "the cities" unless its something huge. Sports may have a blip about the pro teams (usually the score). Sadly the new 6am news they started in January has a lot of the same stories that were on the news the night before. The weather is the main reason I watch KEYC. Sports they do have the local high school scores which is nice. Converselly Minneapolis doesnt talk about Mankato unless again something HUGE happens or for the yearly Vikings training camp in Mankato. Now that the Vikes arent coming there anymore (they built a huge training facility in the cities and will train there). Every now and then the sports will talk about MSU-Mankato which has some good D2 teams but again its not a regular occurance. I guess one other reason I will watch KEYC is when there is a weather alert on WCCO or KMSP there may not be a banner on KEYC. The Minneapolis market is huge...runs from the Iowa border almost up to Canada. So when there is a weather alert in say Bemidji, which is 200+ miles north of Minneapolis yet still in the market, and WCCO runs a banner for it KEYC will still be "clean" so I can watch without a weather scroll :)

So I do understand why folks in Lafayette still want Indy stations. I know this may be "old school" but why not just black out duplicate programming like they use to do (and maybe still do)? I remember watching KMSP (now FOX but was an Independent and then UPN) in Duluth during 2000-2002 and during the day they usually would have the grey screen with "due to FCC regulations this program must be blacked out. Check listings for other times" because the Duluth stations had the rights to some of the talk shows (albeigh they were shown at like 2am). But is that too much work?
(I know KEYC's owner a couple years ago petitioned to the FCC to force Charter to remove Minneapolis CBS, FOX and the Austin ABC in Mankato/North Mankato basically to protect their station. the CBS & FOX for obvious duplicate programming but also KAAL Austin due to syndicated duplication. Heck in the morning you can see Kelly and Ryan on THREE stations (WCCO, KEYC and KAAL). It still hasnt been approved.
 
https://www.fiercecable.com/cable/comcast-hit-by-fcc-carriage-complaint-form-bein-sports

Comcast is hit with a carriage complaint from the FCC over the contract with bein Sports.

International soccer programmer beIN Sports has filed a program carriage complaint against Comcast, alleging the cable giant gives unfair advantage to its own sports channels.

Stop us if you’ve heard this complaint before (this one was first reported on by Multichannel News): beIN alleges that Comcast puts NBC Sports and NBC Universo in less expensive, more widely distributed tiers.

“The Comcast offer discriminates against the programming of beIN and in favor of NBC Sports’ and NBC Universo’s similarly situated sports programming,” the filing said.

A globally situated spinoff programming asset of the Al Jazeera Media Network, beIN notes that the FCC has already determined that less likeminded sports channels compete for viewership and tier positioning.

"The Commission has already found that a sports network focused on football (the NFL Network) is similarly situated to Comcast-affiliated networks focused on golf, fishing and hunting programming," beIN said. "Here, the similarity among the programming of the four networks in question is much more pronounced.”


Further, beIN said other pay TV operators give its networks far better tier positioning.

“Nor is it true that other distributors carrying beIN do so almost universally on upper level tiers: as many as seven distributors—Charter, CenturyLink, Frontier, FuboTV, Liberty Puerto Rico, Prism, and Verizon—give beIN access to tiers with greater penetration than the packages to which Comcast has consigned beIN. Of them, Verizon gives beIN penetration to the vast majority of its subscriber base, with the sole exception of the FiOS skinny bundle,” the complaint noted.
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