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Is ABC-News-Now Gone?

C

chime

As a news-junky I notice channel 243 on Uverse seems to
be blank since Tuesday. Since I am totally blind, I
have no idea if there's an announcement on the video?
Certainly will be interested to watch the new
ABC-New/Univision channel later this year.
I also really wish I had a way of tracking new channel
changes on Uverse here in Southern Cal, similar to
years ago there were listings which tracked Dish
Network updates. As far as News channels on Uverse,
CNN-International, audio has been quite a bit down last
2weeks. I have Dish as well so I can get France24 and
RT. Thanks in advance for helpful info
 
It appears the channel is defunct, and may have been for a while. All mention of News Now disappeared from abcnews.com some weeks ago.
 
Just checked and I still have it on Suddenlink cable in North Carolina. Easily the most useless channel. They don't even switch to ABC news live feed during breaking stories.
 
It's still on Charter in Jackson, TN in the digital tier, and I agree it's useless for the most part. Everything is pre-recorded, and nothing is live.
 
Thanks all in informing that you are still receiving this channel. I will have to take it up with
Uverse this weekend.
While I certainly agree with these 2 latest comments, I need to go over some history.
In July 2004 ABC-News-Now began in running both Political Conventions gaval2gaval as anchored coverage,
much of it with the late Peter Jennings. Jennings seemed to drive both the regular ABC
Network-and-this newest channel as more hard news-and-special events.
As I had read at that time ABC-News took a hit for its slow reaction to the 2003 Columbia Space
accident.
Just days after the 2005 Presidential Inauguration they discontinued offering the channel on OTA
sub-channels, but the Network continued online-and-other platforms.
They still had live coverage, especially surrounding the change of Popes in 2005.
Seeming after Jennings left us they must have scaled back-and-become more reality based.
Even as late as 2008-and-2010 they ran lots of special Primary, Convention, and Election coverage. But
once I got Uverse in June 2011 the channel hardly ever ran live events.
They did run Election Night with Yaho.
I sure wish I were able to find airchex of their older coverage.
 
If anything, at this point it dilutes the brand. It's buried in the digital tier but very visibly named "ABCNEWS" in the guide on my TiVo. In the cable arena vs CNN, Fox, MSNBC - it looks pathetic.
 
This is a sad situation since ABC News Now did have potential. With the major cable news outlets going to a shouting heads approach and HLN becoming a complete joke, they could have filled a void for straightforward news. And they could have even targeted themselves toward DTV subchannels, which they initially did. That would certainly be a way to bolster the news operations of their affiliates, who could have slipped in local hourly updates or whatever. But as of late, they've just been flopping around in the bottom of the boat.
 
FightingIrish said:
This is a sad situation since ABC News Now did have potential. With the major cable news outlets going to a shouting heads approach and HLN becoming a complete joke, they could have filled a void for straightforward news. And they could have even targeted themselves toward DTV subchannels, which they initially did. That would certainly be a way to bolster the news operations of their affiliates, who could have slipped in local hourly updates or whatever. But as of late, they've just been flopping around in the bottom of the boat.
Click to expand...
Well it ain't like they didn't shoot themselves in the foot ya know. The fact is THEY HAD to launch NOW as a 24/7 hard news diginet & DID NOT DO IT !!! Instead they launched the LiveWell network which is JUST NOW starting to get attention & gain traction. If ABC had the chance to do it all over again, somehow I don't think LiveWell would be around

Here's to hope (Hopefully not against hope) that CBS gets off the schnide & launches a 24/7 hard news channel with Up To The Minute as a diginet.....

Cheers & 73 ;D
 
Finally on Sunday I phoned Uverse, obviously spoke with
India. Not only couldn't he find a channel 243 but
even implied MSNBC was gone, but then apologized. So
after receiving some nice monthly discounts for an
inconvenience of missing a News channel, I did my own
research, found this page:
http://www.uversechannels.com/national-legal-descriptio
n
Looks like there were several channels
which were posibly yanked, including 243.
Well, now today, my box no longer stops there.
I did fillout a survey-and-asked for JLTV.
I sure hope we will get that new ABC-News/Univision
Channel later this year.
 
what I don't understand about ABC is that it shows (on KTRK 13, Houston's ABC Owned and Operated) the LiveWell Network in HD on 13.2 and the LiveWell Network in SD on 13.3. that is a waste of the subchannel to duplicate the programming. They used to run Accu-Weather on 13.3, but replaced it with the duplication of LiveWell. Why not run ABC News Now on the subchannel, since the programming already exists and it would cost ABC next to nothing to patch it onto the existing 13.3.
 
HoustonListener said:
what I don't understand about ABC is that it shows (on KTRK 13, Houston's ABC Owned and Operated) the LiveWell Network in HD on 13.2 and the LiveWell Network in SD on 13.3. that is a waste of the subchannel to duplicate the programming. They used to run Accu-Weather on 13.3, but replaced it with the duplication of LiveWell. Why not run ABC News Now on the subchannel, since the programming already exists and it would cost ABC next to nothing to patch it onto the existing 13.3.
Click to expand...

Probably for one reason; so the cable companies aren't about to give out the .3 to someone else if they discontinue the channel. They still 'program' the channel and keep the channel slot and if it gets pulled, it's a simple manner to have the lawyers call up and threaten to pull ESPN if they don't put it back on. And no cable company wants that to happen. Once they get an idea to put the .3 there won't be a problem lining up cable coverage.

Also with the ABC/Univision channel to come next year, putting on ABC News Now is moot.
 
I remember reading this post a while back and this morning I noticed a message from charter on the former ABC News Now channel that reads "ABC News Now is transitioning away from carriage of this program. This channel is no longer available in Charter."

Although I never really watched this channel, are the launching something new or is it just another channel we lost? Seems like we lost 4 already this year but rates still went up.
 
It is still on Suddenlink and oddly it appears to now be produced in HD, or at least 16:9 SD. The channel is being broadcast on my cable as 4:3 but it is clearly anamorphic 16:9 (no bars). If I stretch the picture it looks normal and even places the bug in the 4:3 safe area. It was center cut 4:3 in the past (and I assumed it was only sourced as 4:3 to begin with). There is no HD equivalent on the cable system, only this SD version.
 
HoustonListener said:
...the LiveWell Network in HD on 13.2 and the LiveWell Network in SD on 13.3. that is a waste of the subchannel to duplicate the programming...
Click to expand...

In New York, Fox-owned WNYW and WWOR both simulcast on their subchannels (5.2, 9.2) for awhile; I know one of these is now "Mundo Fox," not sure about the other...
 
The NYC situation was not quite the same. The sub for each was on the other signal. 5.2 came from WWOR's transmitter and 9.2 came from WNYW's. It was to ensure that one could see their signals OTA regardless.
 
HoustonListener said:
what I don't understand about ABC is that it shows (on KTRK 13, Houston's ABC Owned and Operated) the LiveWell Network in HD on 13.2 and the LiveWell Network in SD on 13.3. that is a waste of the subchannel to duplicate the programming.
Click to expand...

I agree. Having the .3 subchannel is overloading the bandwidth of the 6 MHz channel with two 720p HD feeds.

Houston's other subchannels would be better off in SD 16:9 widescreen instead of 4:3 SD. One of my pet peeves is improper aspect ratio. I really hate it when programming on an HD-capable channel (OTA and cable) is windowboxed when it can be shown in widescreen and center-cut for 4:3 viewers (and for 4:3 material to be shown at 4:3 instead of stretched or windowboxed 4:3).
 
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