How is the transmitter system in the US structured?

[schmave]

They're locked out by ZIP code.

- Trip

So they are all broadcast (thats a *lot* of affilates!), but you can only view your local one? Or can you choose?

They're all broadcast, but on narrow spot beams, so transponder frequencies can be reused many times across the country. You can only (legally) get the affiliates that are "local" to your area. That's determined by Nielsen's Designated Market Areas (DMA), and each zip code is in one and only one DMA.

Yes, so even if one (almost always rural) area is served by affiliates from multiple cities on cable, you lose all the "out of market" stations when you get satellite. I am sure there are ways to get around it, but I have no idea what they are.

 

[bpatrick]

Sometimes it's a thing called "popular demand." Here in
Chatham County, NC (Raleigh/Durham DMA), Charter
Communications wanted to drop WFMY Greensboro and
WGHP High Point. Both of those stations were available
OTA (WFMY since 1949, WGHP since 1963), people were
used to watching them, so it was the viewers who pressured
Charter into keeping them (they're also available on DirecTV).

And a question about Nashville: the poster said that the
transmitters for Chs. 2 and 8 are located south of the city.
Isn't it true, however, that there's always been concern about
those two stations short-spacing Chs. 2 and 8 in Atlanta, so
they don't operate on full power?

 

[w9wi]

And a question about Nashville: the poster said that the
transmitters for Chs. 2 and 8 are located south of the city.
Isn't it true, however, that there's always been concern about
those two stations short-spacing Chs. 2 and 8 in Atlanta, so
they don't operate on full power?

Both channels operated (in the analog era) at full power. They weren't at full antenna height, but then again neither was any other Tennessee station west of the Cumberland Plateau. (nor were most other stations in the South)

I don't have time to do the math right now but I'm pretty sure the site is fully spaced from Atlanta by at least ten miles.

 

[BMR]

The "local" newscast is not really local either. It's more of a regional thing unless you are in London. (which is kind of treated as its own region)

I think the lack of localism in British television is a crying shame.

Yes, that is one area where the British system falls down.

Thinking about it, the idea of city stations was first put forward when the government decided to licence a fifth analogue station in the 1990s. I think the idea was to have a station for London, one for Newcastle, one for Liverpool etc etc. which offered local news in the early evening and late night programming such as discussion shows, but shared a few hours in prime time in between. A bit more like the US system, if not a true network/affilate model.


Instead we got the snowstorm that was/is Channel Five analogue, which neither has the universal coverage of the main four stations nor offers any local content.- the worst of both worlds. And IMHO the programming is nothing special either.


Not sure if anything can ever be done about this now. In the 1990s the idea of going from four channels to five was exciting, especially as it also increased the number of commercial stations from two to three. In 2010 we have dozens of commercial channels- so I doubt we'll see a great rush of interest for another licence, either from viewers or broadcasters......

Looks like I may have been wrong. http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/broadcasting/news/a305389/greg-dyke-leads-bid-for-local-tv-network.html

Britain may finally be about to get network/affiliate style telly with a strong local focus.