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DTV SUBCHANNELS on LOCAL CABLE SYSTEMS/SATELLITE

I'm curious here...when a regular full-service television station is carried by cable and satellite in a local market, is the cable system or DirecTV/Dish required to retransmit the DTV subchannel?
 
At some future point, I've heard it's going to be required, but when we had Dish up to about a month ago, they only had one subchannel from a local PBS station, and it was actually not from the same station that was the local PBS channel they carried [they carried WUNC's regular channel, but WUNP's Kids subchannel].
 
sdwulfdawg said:
I'm curious here...when a regular full-service television station is carried by cable and satellite in a local market, is the cable system or DirecTV/Dish required to retransmit the DTV subchannel?

Not yet, but the idea is under consideration.
 
At some point it's going to be required but I see the satellite having an issue with some of the duplicate services. I can't see Dish or Direct carrying all those RTN or This TV subchannels when most are carrying the same thing nationwide, they'l use the cry of "waisting bandwidth". I think Dish already does this with some of the networks. Daystar comes to mind, instead of carrying each individual station they just offer a national feed.

While they're at it, might as well start considering all the translators and low power stations for must carry.
 
In the Chicago market, DirecTV & Dish Network don't carry any subchannels. Weigel Broadcasting was lucky to get MeTV WWME-LD (also carried on WCIU 26.2 OTA) on DirecTV & Dish Network, but not MeToo WCUU-CA (also available on WCIU 26.3 OTA). As for cable, that depends on the local cable company. Most Comcast franchises carry the subchannels on the digital tier. My peticular Comcast in Gary Indiana doesn't have the capacity to carry all subchannels. They carry MeTV (WWME-LD) & MeToo (MeToo), plus FBT from WCIU 26.6. They however don't carry the rest of the subchannels.

If stations are lucky to get their subchannels on satellite, I could see channels that are programmed locally get on satellite more than channels that are available nationwide. Satellite already carry PBS World, V-Me, & Create & the those feeds are also OTA on some PBS affiliates. So they'll probably not carry the same channels from the local stations. Weigel Broadcasting might be the most successful of most companies to eventually get all their channels on satellite, as their Chicago stations & subchannels are all programmed locally (except for This TV, which might already be available on satellite, but not 100% sure). Weigel in Chicago has WCIU (The U), MeTV, MeToo, & FBT (brokered ethnic programming) all programmed locally. FBT will be replaced with U Too, which will air some of WCIU's programs in different timeslots, but also add new programming that isn't being shown anywhere else. Not sure what that'll be, but I believe they can pull it off.
 
On Charter in Jackson, TN, they carry PBS Create from WLJT, WBBJ's (ABC) weather radar, and WMC in Memphis's (NBC) Weather Plus Channel and This TV. The one subchannel I wish they would get is RTV, but it's only on WLMT (CW) in Memphis, which they don't carry. At the present time WJKT (Fox) in Jackson isn't doing anything with subchannels. I'd like to see them get RTV or Antenna TV when it becomes available, but I won't be surprised if they don't do anything. It really doesn't make sense to me why some stations like WJKT are sitting on the capability to carry subchannels and doing nothing with it.
 
Mainedude2007 said:
At some point it's going to be required but I see the satellite having an issue with some of the duplicate services. <snip> Daystar comes to mind, instead of carrying each individual station they just offer a national feed.

That seems much more reasonable to me.

Mainedude2007 said:
While they're at it, might as well start considering all the translators and low power stations for must carry.

Why would they ever carry a translator when the local station is already carried?

As far as LPTV.....as long as they are "bonafide" service and not just broadcasting infomercials. But what was the original purpose of LPTV? Were they ever intended to cover a major coverage area? IMHO most are useless unless they serve a non-English speaking population.
 
They should. Not everyone can get an over-the-air signal.

In Myrtle Beach My Network is a subchannel and as far as I know they don't have it on cable. That may have just been for motels, which didn't have WB, which was low-power. Still, the main channel is 13 and that's a VHF signal which I understand has problems in Myrtle Beach, even on cable. I didn't have any problems with channel 13, but I did experience squares on the screen with the CW station, which I assume is UHF.
 
vchimpanzee said:
They should. Not everyone can get an over-the-air signal.

In Myrtle Beach My Network is a subchannel and as far as I know they don't have it on cable. That may have just been for motels, which didn't have WB, which was low-power. Still, the main channel is 13 and that's a VHF signal which I understand has problems in Myrtle Beach, even on cable. I didn't have any problems with channel 13, but I did experience squares on the screen with the CW station, which I assume is UHF.
The old WB network was cable only in the MYB/FLO market and was carried by all TW systems, but perhaps not on TW's strange "hotel cable," though I'd be surprised if they weren't. Presently, the MY network is carried on a digital tier on all TW in MYB/FLO, but of course hotels would not have that tier. I believe all of the OTA channels are fed to all TW systems in that market via fiber, so there shouldn't have been any reception problems, though I'm not sure what you mean by 13 being the "main channel." Perhaps your hotel was using one of the notorious private cable services which might explain the poor reception on some OTA channels.
 
COMCAST (XFINITY) Plainville/New Britain/Bristol, CT

291 WCCT Channel 20.2 - THIS TV
292 WEDH Channel 24.3 - Create
293 WFSB Channel 3.3 - Eyewitness News Now - 24 Hour News & Weather/CBS Overflow
294 WVIT Channel 30.2 - NBC Weather Plus
295 WVIT Channel 30.3 - Universal Sports Television
296 WUVN Channel 18.3 - Telefutura

Not Carried:
WHPX Channel 26.2 - Qubo
WHPX Channel 26.3 - ION Life?
WUVN Channel 18.4 LATV
WTNH Channel 8.2/WCTX Channel 59.2 - Skymax Doppler Radar
WEDH Channel 24.2 - CPTV2 alternate PBS programming. No kids shows.

I hope they add Antenna TV which will either be on WCCT Channel 20.3 or WTIC Channel 61.2 - Even though Antenna TV's website lists WTIC as the affiliate THIS-TV's website lists WTIC as it's affiliate. It is on WCCT Channel 20.2

Comcast - Waterbury/Wolcott/Plymouth, CT

261 WVIT Channel 30.3
262 WVIT Channel 30.2
263 WUVN Channel 18.3
264 WFSB Channel 3.3
265 WCCT Channel 20.2

Not Carried - All Channels not carried on The Plainville/New Britain/Bristol System plus WEDH 24.3 - Create.
 
sdwulfdawg said:
I'm curious here...when a regular full-service television station is carried by cable and satellite in a local market, is the cable system or DirecTV/Dish required to retransmit the DTV subchannel?

Some stations make a subchannel system-specific as a lure to customers, which is what WTMJ in Milwaukee and WSBT in South Bend do for their weather subchannels; you only see WTMJ's channel over the air and over Time Warner Cable (nice since I'm on a Charter system so I have to watch it over the internet or on the antenna), while WSBT's channel is sponsored exclusively by Comcast and carried by them only.
 
ansky212 said:
Where I live in the NYC area, Verizon Fios carries almost all subchannels...

Indeed, there are some subchannels VZ carries that Cablevision doesn't; for example, the 62.2 channel of WRNN, which is "Mega TV" (based on the local readio station). In fact, VZ carries local broadcast stations from everywhere between New Jersey (NJN) to Eastern Long Island (WVVH) so they're beyond must-carry.
 
DToTheJ said:
Indeed, there are some subchannels VZ carries that Cablevision doesn't; for example, the 62.2 channel of WRNN, which is "Mega TV" (based on the local readio station). In fact, VZ carries local broadcast stations from everywhere between New Jersey (NJN) to Eastern Long Island (WVVH) so they're beyond must-carry.

The Verizon system in north Jersey doesn't carry WVVH. But they do carry WSAH from Bridgeport, CT. I wish Verizon would start carrying WPIX 11.3 so I can watch This-TV.
 
Both our local stations (Great Falls, MT) have their subchannels carried by Bresnan Cable (can't say for other cable systems in the outlying areas), however both are also "network" affiliates. KFBB has Fox (and I think some MNTV after Fox primetime) on its subchannel, while KRTV carries CW. Both insert local commercials and some syndicated content (moreso KFBB than KRTV) so its not just a satellite-feed pass-through.

There's also plans for KFBB to air a primetime newscast on Fox (and from what I understand it's required under the affiliation agreement) in conjunction with sister stations in Helena (KHBB), Missoula/Kalispell (KTMF) and Butte/Bozeman (KWYB).
 
Most of the local DTV subchannels make it to Time Warner, though hidden up in the 300s digital-cable wise...This TV (WUAB/43.2), the weather subs of WKYC (3.2) and WOIO (19.2) and the subs of both PBS affiliates (WVIZ/25.x, WEAO/49.x, see the thread on PBS subchannels for more information) are all in that range.

None of them are in the DirecTV or Dish local lineups.

The CW affiliate (WBNX/55) just added a part-time subchannel on 55.2, that has no cable carriage as far as I know (unless TWC added it without me looking). It exists primarily to air the religious TV shows of station owner Rev. Ernest Angley, mostly repeats...
 
fortmill said:
vchimpanzee said:
They should. Not everyone can get an over-the-air signal.

In Myrtle Beach My Network is a subchannel and as far as I know they don't have it on cable. That may have just been for motels, which didn't have WB, which was low-power. Still, the main channel is 13 and that's a VHF signal which I understand has problems in Myrtle Beach, even on cable. I didn't have any problems with channel 13, but I did experience squares on the screen with the CW station, which I assume is UHF.
The old WB network was cable only in the MYB/FLO market and was carried by all TW systems, but perhaps not on TW's strange "hotel cable," though I'd be surprised if they weren't. Presently, the MY network is carried on a digital tier on all TW in MYB/FLO, but of course hotels would not have that tier. I believe all of the OTA channels are fed to all TW systems in that market via fiber, so there shouldn't have been any reception problems, though I'm not sure what you mean by 13 being the "main channel." Perhaps your hotel was using one of the notorious private cable services which might explain the poor reception on some OTA channels.
No, it's Time Warner, and it wasn't really poor reception. I know it's Time Warner because they're still airing the same real estate show that used to have Music Choice music (that's what someone at Time Warner told me), but they don't anymore and I'd like to know why because I liked that music.
 
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