Hotel cable lineup: Red Lion Hotel, Bellevue, WA

[crainbebo]

Stayed at the Red Lion Hotel in Bellevue Saturday and Sunday. Here's the lineup provided by DirecTV...

3-KOMO Seattle (ABC)
4-KIRO Seattle (CBS)
5-KING Seattle (NBC)
6-KCPQ Tacoma (Fox)
7-KCTS Seattle (PBS)
8-KSTW Tacoma (CW)
9-Fox News
10-CNBC
11-Current TV (should be MSNBC)
12-HLN
13-Weather Channel (National feed)
14-Bloomberg
15-A&E
16-ABC Family
17-AMC
19-FX
20-Discovery
24-Golf Channel
25-ESPN
27-ESPNEWS
28 & 29-ESPN Classic (wonder why it was on twice? One should be ESPN U)
30-Fox Sports Northwest (I think there was a 31, National Geographic)
32-Nickelodeon
33-TLC
34-Syfy
35-TNT
36-TBS
37-Encore East
38-Encore West
39-Cartoon Network
40-Animal Planet
41-History Channel
42-Military Channel
43-ESPN 2

Surprising things are: No MNTV and NO CNN!! But hey, I do get HLN!

-crainbebo

 

[Gregg]

And no CBUT Vancouver, which is carried on Seattle area cable systems. At one time it aired on Channel 2 (it's over-the-air dial position) but some years ago it got moved to a higher channel on Seattle area cable.

You'd think with visitors from north of the border, the hotel would include CBC TV on the channel line up. Also no Univision. What do the maids watch while vacuuming the rooms? Seriously, you'd think in a hotel in an international city like Seattle that there'd be several foreign stations in the line up, perhaps CCTV 4 or 9 or BBC or NHK. When Americans travel abroad, we expect to see a few English language stations in our hotels, in addition to local and regional channels.


Gregg
[email protected]

 

[OhioMediaWatch]

And no CBUT Vancouver, which is carried on Seattle area cable systems. At one time it aired on Channel 2 (it's over-the-air dial position) but some years ago it got moved to a higher channel on Seattle area cable.

I have yet to see a DirecTV-powered hotel system near a Canadian market have the Canadian signal. This includes Detroit (CBET/9 Windsor) and Buffalo (CBLT/5 Toronto), despite the fact that the major cable system in each region carries at very least the CBC station.

One reason for this is obvious...as far as I know, DirecTV carries no Canadian stations, even significantly viewed cross border stations like the above.

 

[DToTheJ]

42-Military Channel

Don't freak out... I believe there is a military base in the area - hence the station's carriage in the area.

 

[Yeziknoradio]

42-Military Channel

Don't freak out... I believe there is a military base in the area - hence the station's carriage in the area.

If so, a scenery channel of that base would get better ratings in a hotel.

 

[Gregg]

When it comes to the military, I think they'd be more interested in The Pentagon Channel, which is programmed for current members of the military. (It was on my cable system where I used to live.)

The Military Channel is sort of a history channel that focuses on war footage and military battles. I'm not sure too many of today's members of the military, born in the 80s or 90s, would be all that interested in black and white films of WWII. Maybe they should call it The Veterans' Channel.

Gregg
[email protected]

 

[azumanga]

One reason for this is obvious...as far as I know, DirecTV carries no Canadian stations, even significantly viewed cross border stations like the above.

Maybe because the satellite companies have to receive Federal approval to carry foreign terrestrial channels, perhaps? If so, I can't see why they couldn't carry them, as they carry XETV in San Diego (among similar channels) -- while it is English-language affiliated with The CW, no doubt there were some strings attached, as it was on a Mexican license.

 

[OhioMediaWatch]

Maybe because the satellite companies have to receive Federal approval to carry foreign terrestrial channels, perhaps? If so, I can't see why they couldn't carry them, as they carry XETV in San Diego (among similar channels) -- while it is English-language affiliated with The CW, no doubt there were some strings attached, as it was on a Mexican license.

Good question.

I don't know if the satellite companies have any different rules for cross-border stations they may wish to carry. XETV's programming side is operated by an American company (at the behest of the Mexican licensee, of course, but the business operations and studios are in San Diego).

CBET and CBLT, meanwhile, are owned by the CBC and fuily Canadian.

I seem to recall that XETV feeds U.S. cable systems (and satellite) directly from their SD studios, presumably by fiber optic, so the Mexican license may not even come into play. I know over-air channel 6 carries stuff like The Mexican National Hour, or whatever the current form is, where it is not seen on the XETV feed on cable/satellite in the United States.

The cable systems that carry CBET, CBLT, CBUT, etc. presumably just pick them up OTA from within the States.

 

[Sammi Brie]

Maybe because the satellite companies have to receive Federal approval to carry foreign terrestrial channels, perhaps? If so, I can't see why they couldn't carry them, as they carry XETV in San Diego (among similar channels) -- while it is English-language affiliated with The CW, no doubt there were some strings attached, as it was on a Mexican license.

Good question.

I don't know if the satellite companies have any different rules for cross-border stations they may wish to carry. XETV's programming side is operated by an American company (at the behest of the Mexican licensee, of course, but the business operations and studios are in San Diego).

CBET and CBLT, meanwhile, are owned by the CBC and fuily Canadian.

I seem to recall that XETV feeds U.S. cable systems (and satellite) directly from their SD studios, presumably by fiber optic, so the Mexican license may not even come into play. I know over-air channel 6 carries stuff like The Mexican National Hour, or whatever the current form is, where it is not seen on the XETV feed on cable/satellite in the United States.

The cable systems that carry CBET, CBLT, CBUT, etc. presumably just pick them up OTA from within the States.

Correct. XETV is obligated by Mexican law to carry Spanish-language PSAs and the Mexican Himno Nacional at 5am (the "start" of its broadcast day though it is a 24-hour station), as well as addresses from the country's president. (All that only runs on their OTA signal, of course.) Briefly after the US digital switch its Mexican owners (Televisa: the US assets are owned by a related company called Bay City Television) wanted to convert the OTA analog (México's digital transition is a slow, phased process, though XETV's digital signal is operating) into a relay of XEQ-9 Mexico City (it should be noted that many stations relay the main Mexico City ones except for local ads – an additional few mix their program lineups, especially some of the Televisas). XHRIO and XHDTV, whose assets are managed by Entravision, are similar in their structure.

 

[OhioMediaWatch]

One anomaly I didn't realize until I read "San Diego 6"'s Reception FAQ web page...the Mexican government required programming is NOT seen on even the Mexican-licensed, Tijuana-area based XETV-DT OTA signal. It is only seen on analog channel 6.