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Cable systems that didnt carry popular channels

WSEE/WICU airs localized updates of its feeds for the Caribbean, and a full-service Carribean-oriented channel, under the One Caribbean Television brand:


BTW, I just noticed that NBC America aired a modified version of WNBC's We're 4 New York promo campaign:

 
TVWorldwide said:
WSEE/WICU airs localized updates of its feeds for the Caribbean, and a full-service Carribean-oriented channel, under the One Caribbean Television brand:
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I never figured out what a small CBS affiliate in Pennsylvania was doing on cable systems throughout the Caribbean, but evidently they cut a good deal and were able to deliver a satisfactory product.
 
IM42A said:
I never figured out what a small CBS affiliate in Pennsylvania was doing on cable systems throughout the Caribbean, but evidently they cut a good deal and were able to deliver a satisfactory product.
Click to expand...

As this article from 2019 indicates, things haven't always been straightforward for them:

rbr.com

Lilly Lassoes A Broadcast TV Station To Bump Caribbean Coverage | Radio & Television Business Report

For several years, Lilly Broadcasting's TV division has provided cable and satellite viewers in U.S. Caribbean territories with English-language network programming from the mainland. Now, it is ensuring its services perhaps avoid another ugly dispute over carriage fees by buying an over-the-air...
rbr.com rbr.com
 
In late 1997, the following channels were not carried at all or only carried on parts of the TCI system in Grand Rapids:
- ESPN2
- CMT
- VH1 (only carried outside the City of Grand Rapids)
- TLC (only carried outside the City of Grand Rapids)
- Court TV
- Comedy Central
- MSNBC
- TBN (although local station WTLJ carried some TBN programming at the time)
- HGTV
- History Channel
- Turner Classic Movies
- Sci-Fi Channel
- Food Network
- HBO 2 and Cinemax 2
 
yeoldeschool said:
Beside NBC America and FoxNet, did any of the other OTA networks have national feeds back then?
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Not to my knowledge, but if you could prove that you could not get one or more of the networks OTA, you could get locals from major cities on satellite (NYC, LA, Denver, possibly others). I don't know if that's still the case, as pretty much everybody can get local-into-local for their market on Dish or DirecTV, and BUD owners are a very small minority. I don't know if the "Denver 5" (six?) are still offered to the latter. Obviously Miami is available via satellite to Caribbean cable providers, as they tend to be the default US stations down there, but I doubt their footprint reaches into CONUS.

AFAIK, unless it would be FoxNet (are they still around?), there aren't generic network feeds for cable companies anymore.
 
Primetime 24 carried WNBC (the NBC America feed), WSEE (satellite feed w/ 800 numbers replacing local advertising), and WKRN for ABC. Oddly enough, WKRN Nashville was a clean feed with no substitutions. Prior to WNBC, PT24 had WXIA Atlanta (clean feed). ABC was originally WABC New York (clean feed), then WJLA D.C. (also clean) before it got tossed for WKRN. CBS started out with WBBM Chicago (clean), then WRAL Raleigh (satellite feed with 800 numbers and Caribbean-oriented commercials), before WSEE came around.
The CBS WSEE satellite feed was known as "SEE-CBS". Station IDs were different and didn't have the channel 35 references except for news and promos.

Denver stations went away many years ago for national carriage. All Denver stations were clean feeds with local ads. But a lot of very rural communities had one or more Denver stations on cable. The cable in St. Regis and Superior MT carried KMGH instead of KTMF for ABC. KTMF was just too weak and on UHF in the rugged mountain regions W of Missoula.
 
Charleston SC area never had WWOR on cable in any of its iterations as a superstation on the major system (Storer/Comcast). It also didn't add SportSouth until 1995 (5 years after it had started). That meant any Wednesday Braves game was unavailable locally, along with Hawks or Hornets games outside of like 20 games my local UPN showed.

Basically any Comcast owned network though was on the cable pretty much from the beginning. Game Show Network was on from about 1996 along with OLN as soon as it started. Comcast locally replaced CMT with Jones owned GAC (which Comcast had bought).
 
Storer Cable in northern Kentucky had channels called "network preempt" that supposedly carried network programs during the many times the Cincinnati stations preempted them. But every time I tried watching these channels, they were just showing the Cincinnati stations.
 
NoWayNoCC said:
Storer Cable in northern Kentucky had channels called "network preempt" that supposedly carried network programs during the many times the Cincinnati stations preempted them. But every time I tried watching these channels, they were just showing the Cincinnati stations.
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Cincinnati stations (especially WLWT) were very much prone to pre-empt network offerings. Indeed, at one point WXIX was listed in Television Factbook as being affiliated with NBC, ABC, and CBS on a per-program basis. "Wild-card" channels were common in the 1970s and thereabouts. I do know that Columbus had such a channel, IIRC they imported WAKR for ABC, WTRF for NBC (which it was at the time), and WHIO for CBS. I wouldn't swear to each of those, but I distinctly remember seeing WAKR on their wild-card channel. (I was there one weekend either in 1979 or 1980 and saw it then on the hotel cable.)
 
American Cablevision (later Time Warner, currently Spectrum) in Kansas City, didn't add CourtTV, ESPN2, VH1, E!, Cartoon Network, CNBC Full time, BET fulltime, until they upgraded their capacity around 1996/97 depending in the neighborhood, the launch the KCWB bumped WGN off in the areas with the lower capacity lineup, although it carried Comedy Central full time during the MST3K era, it also carried a public access channel for about a decade after they were no required to after the KKK tried to get on when Metro Sports launched, using also newly launched CNNSI as filler
 
nomadcowatbk said:
American Cablevision (later Time Warner, currently Spectrum) in Kansas City, didn't add CourtTV, ESPN2, VH1, E!, Cartoon Network, CNBC Full time, BET fulltime, until they upgraded their capacity around 1996/97 depending in the neighborhood, the launch the KCWB bumped WGN off in the areas with the lower capacity lineup, although it carried Comedy Central full time during the MST3K era, it also carried a public access channel for about a decade after they were no required to after the KKK tried to get on when Metro Sports launched, using also newly launched CNNSI as filler
Click to expand...
The KKK?
 
Adelphia Cable in WNY was one of the first cable systems to carry NFL network. When Adelphia Cable got sold to Time Warner Cable the NFL Network was immediately dropped. After a public outcry they put it back on their system.
 


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