How Hard Is It For A TV Station To Set Up Subchannels

[Markxxx]

OK let's say you have a full power TV station, how much trouble and cost is it to set up a subchannel?

I'm not talking about programming or such, just the technical details.

I was thinking about this while reading the Jerry Lewis MDA telethon.

I thought, OK why not just run the telethon on a subchannel? Would it be that much of an issue to set up a subchannel to run it, then not use the channel again?

 

[DToTheJ]

Kinda like a "pay-per-view" special events channel... only you're not paying for it?

In your example, the telethon would be the only programming shown on this subchannel? Ever?

 

[landtuna]

I'm guessing set-up would be a minor issue compared to the unavailability of the sub-channel to the general viewing public. I'm not aware that most sat and cable companies carry sub-channels so only that fraction of OTA viewers would be able to view - and then only if they rescanned their converter boxes to bring in the new channel.

 

[Prais]

Mr. Tuna is correct.

MDA BUYS the time from the tv stations.
Today, mda would never pay for the telethon on a subchannel, but who knows in 7 or 8 years.

 

[PTBoardOp94]

Relatively trivial, depending on the exact exciter used by the TV station. It would be more complicated to set up the local inserts on the subchannel, because you would need to be able to route video to your main studio/control room, and to some kind of control room for the subchannel.

 

[w9wi]

OK let's say you have a full power TV station, how much trouble and cost is it to set up a subchannel?

I'm not talking about programming or such, just the technical details.

I was thinking about this while reading the Jerry Lewis MDA telethon.

I thought, OK why not just run the telethon on a subchannel? Would it be that much of an issue to set up a subchannel to run it, then not use the channel again?

It does require a bit of equipment. At the very least, one item, possibly a bit more.

Adding a subchannel would at a minimum involve adding an MPEG encoder. You'd have to connect it & program it up, and then make some configuration changes to the "stream multiplexer" and "PSIP generator" to add the channel.

You'll also need a source of audio/video to feed to the encoder. It would be simple to just connect the encoder to the routing switcher & route the MDA satellite receiver to the encoder. However, you do need to run a legal ID on the hour and have some means of dealing with an EAS alert, should one happen during the telethon. (I suppose at the simplest, have the program feed for your main channel on the router, and route it to the subchannel during the EAS.)

I'm not sure what the E/I implications are for a subchannel that would only last for 24 hours. A full-time subchannel must have the same level of children's educational/instructional programming as the main.

If you're not lucky... the stream multiplexer that combines your MPEG programs and your metadata doesn't have a spare input for the telethon subchannel. In which case you'd have to replace it with a bigger one & program up that unit.

At the station i work for we have spare multiplexer inputs and backup MPEG encoders. We could probably get another subchannel on the air in an hour or two. As is so often the case in broadcasting, the hard part is providing the programming...

 

[gregg75]

FCC RULE OF 2015
All sub channels must be carried by cable/satellite........even if that jacks up the price.

 

[w9wi]

Oh, FWIW it doesn't matter whether the station is full-power or low-power, this part of the system is identical.

 

[HoustonListener]

What is the FCC Rule of 2015? or are you saying that the FCC rules will require cable/satellite to carry all subchannels by the year 2015?
I know now that many of the subchannels are not carried by cable and at least locally none by satellite

 

[gregg75]

just a prediction

 

[MarcB]

I know now that many of the subchannels are not carried by cable and at least locally none by satellite

I live in Bristol, Connecticut. These are the subchannels carried by XFINITY (Comcast)

291 WCCT TV 20.2 - This TV
292 WEDH TV 24.5? - PBS Create
293 WFSB TV 3.3 - Eyewitness News Now (24 News and Weather. Occasionally will carry CBS over-flow programming i.e. the US Open was on this channel when play extended to Monday) so as not to displace Oprah and Eyewitness News on the Main Channel)
294 WVIT TV 30.2 - NBC Weather Plus
295 WVIT TV 30.3 - Universal Sports Television
296 WUVN TV 18.3 - Telefutura (simulcast of WUTH-CA/47)

Note 1: WFSB TV 3.2 is WSHM-LP/67 Springfield, Mass the local CBS station for Springfield. Primarily it's used to feed WSHM to the head-ends in Western Mass. They carry The CBS Early Show Saturday Edition and WFSB does not.

Note 2: WUVN TV 18.2 is a separate feed for Springfield. At one time it was WHTX-LP/43 Springfield, Mass but WHTX-LP since gone dark and license deleted.

Note 3: For some reason THIS-TV's website lists WTIC TV 61.2 as its affiliate. Channel 61 does not have a sub channel. Plus the ID on THIS-TV is WCCT-DT 20.2 Waterbury, Hartford, New Haven.

Note 4: WTNH TV 8 does not have a subchannel.

Not carried:

WCTX TV 59.2 - Skymax 8 Dopplar Radar

WUVN TV 18.4 - LATV.

And any of the subchannels of ION WHPX TV 26 - QUBO, ION Life, etc.

Directv and Dish don't carry any of the subchannels.

 

[landtuna]

FCC RULE OF 2015
All sub channels must be carried by cable/satellite........even if that jacks up the price.

Based upon the subs here in Phoenix it would be a waste of bandwidth.

 

[Mediafrog+]

Have to admit the idea of ad-hoc subchannels is intriguing. Cable systems often do it for special events programming, mapping a channel for just a short period of time.

You would have to heavily promote it and have some sort of "locator" video/audio up before the designated program so viewers could find it.

 

[quadraphonic]

I know now that many of the subchannels are not carried by cable and at least locally none by satellite

I live in Bristol, Connecticut. These are the subchannels carried by XFINITY (Comcast)

291 WCCT TV 20.2 - This TV
292 WEDH TV 24.5? - PBS Create
293 WFSB TV 3.3 - Eyewitness News Now (24 News and Weather. Occasionally will carry CBS over-flow programming i.e. the US Open was on this channel when play extended to Monday) so as not to displace Oprah and Eyewitness News on the Main Channel)
294 WVIT TV 30.2 - NBC Weather Plus
295 WVIT TV 30.3 - Universal Sports Television
296 WUVN TV 18.3 - Telefutura (simulcast of WUTH-CA/47)

Note 1: WFSB TV 3.2 is WSHM-LP/67 Springfield, Mass the local CBS station for Springfield. Primarily it's used to feed WSHM to the head-ends in Western Mass. They carry The CBS Early Show Saturday Edition and WFSB does not.

Note 2: WUVN TV 18.2 is a separate feed for Springfield. At one time it was WHTX-LP/43 Springfield, Mass but WHTX-LP since gone dark and license deleted.

Note 3: For some reason THIS-TV's website lists WTIC TV 61.2 as its affiliate. Channel 61 does not have a sub channel. Plus the ID on THIS-TV is WCCT-DT 20.2 Waterbury, Hartford, New Haven.

Note 4: WTNH TV 8 does not have a subchannel.

Not carried:

WCTX TV 59.2 - Skymax 8 Dopplar Radar

WUVN TV 18.4 - LATV.

And any of the subchannels of ION WHPX TV 26 - QUBO, ION Life, etc.

Directv and Dish don't carry any of the subchannels.

At least a couple weeks ago, Dish carried UNC-KD the 36.2 PBS Kids subchannel of PBS on channel 36. Then a couple weeks ago they changed it to UNC-EX The Explorer Channel, which is on 36.3 near the market Dish picks "locals" from here.
They also carried qubo, which is on Ion subchannels up around 217.

 

[Carmine5]

FCC RULE OF 2015
All sub channels must be carried by cable/satellite........even if that jacks up the price.

I don't see that happening. Cable and satellite carriers will fight that tooth and nail. Also, some diginets are limited by producer contracts to OTA broadcasting. The soon-to-be launched Antenna TV, for example, is contractually limited to sub-channel broadcasting; no cable, no satellite and no main channel OTA.

What I do think could happen is that LDTV stations will either get cable must-carry status (particularly if they are negatively impacted by the government's spectrum grab) or the FCC will open a window allowing LDTV stations to apply for Class A status.

 

[Markxxx]

Well I am not saying it's a good idea, I was just wondering how hard it would be to do.

I mean you coud put a scrawl on the main channel, saying "MDA telethon tune to 7.2 (rescan if needed)...

As I said, I'm not saying it's a great idea, but just wondering how hard it would be. I guess you could run a few episodes of "The New Zoo Revue" after the telethon to cover your butt after the channel went off.

I mean WGN-TV is running an unmapped 19.4 saying "Antenna TV coming soon" that can't take up much bandwidth as it's just a still. And something like the MDA telethon would only have to be in SD. As for buying time, because it would be a "once a year" type thing, they probably could get it for less.

 

[dave73]

FCC RULE OF 2015
All sub channels must be carried by cable/satellite........even if that jacks up the price.

I don't see that happening. Cable and satellite carriers will fight that tooth and nail. Also, some diginets are limited by producer contracts to OTA broadcasting. The soon-to-be launched Antenna TV, for example, is contractually limited to sub-channel broadcasting; no cable, no satellite and no main channel OTA.

What I do think could happen is that LDTV stations will either get cable must-carry status (particularly if they are negatively impacted by the government's spectrum grab) or the FCC will open a window allowing LDTV stations to apply for Class A status.

I know satellite doesn't want to add the subchannels to their lineup. In Chicago, Weigel Broadcasting was lucky to get WWME-LD (MeTV) added the satellite lineup, but not WMEU-CA (MeToo). I know at least with Comcast Lake County Indiana (all of Lake County, except for East Chicago, Whiting, & Hammond, which is served by 1 Comcast service, & Gary, which is served by another Comcast service) carries all subchannels, but only in the digital tier of digital cable. Comcast Gary Indiana only carries subchannels from Weigel's MeTV, MeToo, & FBT. They don't carry the other subchannels due to capacity. They've had capacity issues since the cable company's inception in 1984 as TCI Cable.

 

[OhioMediaWatch]

You would have to heavily promote it and have some sort of "locator" video/audio up before the designated program so viewers could find it.

The need to rescan on some receivers* is the biggest reason this won't happen on a regular basis, and stations will just use existing subchannels - i.e. here in Cleveland, WOIO/19 occasionally moves overflow programming to 19.2, which is the "WeatherNow" weather/news loop 24/7.

* - Some receivers, most notably the Zenith CECB box and its Insignia clone, don't require rescanning if an existing channel changes its configuration. I even watched the day WOAC/67 became WRLM/47, and the PSIP change from 67 to 47 was automatically registered on my box. I didn't even have to change channels!

The other big reason is that what subchannel carriage there is, is usually on high digital cable channels. If the subchannel were right next to the main channel on cable, it might be a different story.

WYTV/33 Youngstown's "My YTV", the market's MyNetwork TV affiliate on 33.2, is carried on the Valley's TWC system next to the WYTV HD feed, but isn't next to the analog feed (even though it's SD-only, right now). But over here, the subchannels live in the 300s, nowhere near either the analog/low channel placement of the main channels, or the 1000-series placement of the HD feeds.

 

[landtuna]

The other big reason is that what subchannel carriage there is, is usually on high digital cable channels. If the subchannel were right next to the main channel on cable, it might be a different story.

In the old days of manual channel changing with the rotary dial this might have been an issue but with digital direct channel selection it is difficult for me to believe punching in a "high" number is a significant deterrent.

Or are you saying that people have gotten so lazy they just use the 'channel up' and 'channel down' buttons?

 

[quadraphonic]

Most people I know have used "channel up" and "channel down" for years, because they don't know what's on the channels along the way to where they know they want to be. They might be a bit lazy, but it's hard to know what's on tv most of the time these days, unless you really keep track of it.
Or else they don't know where they want to be, but they know they don't want to be on the channel they are on, and they want to see their options before they make a decision. Even if it takes five times around the horn to find a place to stick.