Article about the Digi-Networks

[MarcB]

Here is an article about all the Digital Sub Channel Networks out there.

http://www.tvnewscheck.com/article/2011/07/26/52778/diginets-struggle-for-place-on-tvs-frontier

Thanks to Antenna TV's Facebook Page for linking this article.

 

[notalkallstatic]

Very interesting read...
One thing is incorrect though (that I found,) in it's list of Digi Networks, they have America One being launched in 2009. That's incorrect, they have been around since at least 2005, if not longer. Still interesting article to read.

 

[wncc]

America One has been around at least since the mid 1990's. I know this because the LPTV station in the town I lived in at the time carried America One.

 

[milwaukee_dave]

This was a good, comprehensive piece, despite the America One gaff. I liked the mention of the diginet movement being comparable to cable TV some 30-plus years ago. Programming is niche, generally lower cost and peppered with hard-to-find TV shows from yesteryear -- perfect for a TV geek like myself.

I noticed PBJ was among the diginets listed. It appears Luken is still marketing the channel. A reference to when it will launch simply says, "summer."

 

[dave73]

2 of the networks owned by Ion Media (Qubo & Ion Life) mentioned that they have no interest in expanding outside of the Ion stations. That's Ion Media's problem right there. Instead of owning just a few stations, & let affiliates carry their network in smaller markets, they're spending money on running their stations, that could otherwise be used toward acquiring additional programming (especially for Ion Life, which has lots of reruns of older American shows, & for the Canadian shows, most of them are still on the air, but Ion Life only has 1 or 2 seasons of the Canadian shows). Qubo did acquire the Filmation library of cartoons, & nice to see He-Man & She-Ra again. Even if Ion Media has low overhead at their stations, they have the electric bills to pay for all their transmitters, & that takes a big chunk of money, along with the lease on leased tower space (even higher costs in major markets being on top of a skyscraper, like the Sears Tower in Chicago or the Empire State Building in New York). Even being carried on most cable systems & on satellite (both DBS & C/Ku Band), they could reduce their overhead if they just let some smaller markets affiliate with them (like the major networks do), & just have stations in the top 20 or 30 markets. Otherwise, I wouldn't be surprised if they could go bellyup, considering they already filed bankruptcy, & then decided not to keep that revenue coming in by dropping the Worship Network.

The other networks like Antenna TV & MeTV have potential. While the article didn't talk about non-commercial stations, PBS has overall embraced the multi-casting. They have World, Create (a partnership with American Public Television), & V-Me (completely independent of PBS, but operates like PBS en español) on PBS. For Chicago, WTTW has so much programming that doesn't fit into their regular schedule on 11.1, that they created WTTW Prime (programmed in-house) to air all the PBS & APT programming, that otherwise would only air once in a while. In my opinion, WTTW Prime is programmed better than the main WTTW channel. Part of the reason for WTTW 11 not being programmed as well, is because they devote half of their programming day to children's programming, & don't have squat to watch in prime time. I wish WTTW Prime were the HD channel instead of an SD channel that shows widescreen programming pillarboxed (with the bars on the top & bottom, along with the bars on the left & right). WYCC in Chicago carries Mhz Worldview, which is shown on most PBS stations, though they're completely independent of PBS, & focus mostly on world events & programming not seen in North America (both in English & in the native language of country of origin (like Dutch if from the Netherlands, German from Germany, French from France or Quebec Canada, or Spanish if from Spain or Latin America).