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KTXD dumps MeTV

From their Facebook page:

KTXD-TV
2 hours ago via mobile
We have been contacted by viewers in regards to our network change. We would like to respond to these concerns. We have not renewed our network affiliation with MeTV that is why you see different shows on the air now. With this being said we are still committed to bringing you quality programming as we grow our station. We are really excited about all of our new shows and programming that MeTV could not offer us. In order for us to grow as a station we could not continue rerunning the same programming day after day that MeTV provided us. We are very excited about this change and we can't tell you how much we appreciate you watching KTXD 47!

This is a stunning and sudden development. I can't understand why they would do this.
They even killed off the 47.4 subchannel that carried the full MeTV lineup. Here's what makes this so incredibly stupid: they had actually started to get some very modest but consistent ratings with the MeTV programming. People were starting to find the station. Now, they have just chased away all of that audience with this move. I have no idea what they're running in place of MeTV. I know they'll have a very hard time getting the kind of ratings they had started to get.
 
47-4 has gone dark. 47-1 still looks like it's running MeTV, but the audio isn't working.

If they really wanted to go the independent route on 47-1, why not keep MeTV but move it to 47-2 and dump UAN?
 
No more Svengoolie and Voyage To The Bottom Of The Sea on Sat night?! bummer.

"...we could not continue rerunning the same programming day after day that MeTV provided us..."

I recently noticed different programs on MeTV as they seem to have recently updated their schedule.
 
Noticed this a bit after 1 pm, substitutes:
1300 Ep 1 - BEWITCHED
1330 Ep 1 - I DREAM OF JEANNIE
1400 Ep ? - MAD ABOUT YOU
1430 Ep 1 - DESIGNING WOMEN
1500 Ep 13 - FANTASY ISLAND
 
- so far, all today's programs from Sony library
- KTXD's statement post #1 mentions "programming that MeTV could not offer us"
- however, 33.2 Antenna TV sources Sony; some overlap already apparent
1600 Ep 1 - CHARLIE'S ANGELS
1700 Ep 1 - BARNEY MILLER
1730 Ep 1 - ALL IN THE FAMILY
1800 TEXAS DAILY (per promo)
 
This really bites, and I don't understand the business logic behind this at all. MeTV changes their line-up every quarter or so, so the thing about "rerunning the same programming day after day" is just wrong - and now it looks like they've replaced shows we can't get anywhere else (I'm gonna miss Get Smart!) with shows we can already get on 33.2.

I hope MeTV finds another DFW outlet, even if on LPTV, soon. The one good thing that might come out of this is if MeTV winds up on a station that gives it more bandwidth than KTXD did on 47.4. Shows were fine if you could watch them on 47.1, but if the show was only on 47.4, scenes with a lot of motion often broke up due to lack of bandwidth. Even 31.4 has better picture quality than 47.4 did, although I hate the way RTV cuts up some of their shows.
 
As I read some of the other stories about this I think I can get a bit of a handle on what they're doing. 47 likes to preempt shows for their own local broadcasts. I think what's going on is they have decided that it would be better if they were preempting things that they can pick up with the next episode rather than just preempting an episode and having people miss it. That may have been a concern for some of their viewers and it may have been a problem for Me TV. I also think that because they get to keep pretty much all of their advertising revenue on their new line up it does have the potential to provide them with a bit more revenue then they had even with better ratings for Me TV. I don't know what the ad split was like with Me TV but I get the impression that maybe it wasn't all that good.
 
Hm ... I suppose that could make sense for things like sporting events, which don't always recur daily or weekly - except that they had 47.4. And it wouldn't make much sense for shows like The Texas Daily that always preempt the same show every day. Besides, most of Me-TV's shows aren't soaps or sagas where the viewer would lose the storyline if they miss many episodes.

Maybe a bigger problem was that KTXD was scheduling their local shows at the most popular viewing times, thereby preempting Me-TV's most popular shows - and they weren't even delaying the preempted shows for later broadcast (for the benefit of cable viewers who don't get 47.4). They could have done that if they'd been willing to cut back on the overnight religious and infomercial shows.

And you're probably right about the ad revenue. Even if this hurts their ratings, it could still help their bottom line.

Oh, well - it was enjoyable for the year and a half or so that it lasted :(
 
Probably 99% of my postings on this board are about technical matters and only very occasionally about programming content.

This is one of those exceptions.

In my opinion, this is a very ill-advised move by London. If only they had kept 47-4 running the full Me-TV schedule, I would have been more than happy. With the Sunday night airing of the "The Fugitive" now approaching the end of the series as Richard Kimble is about to close in on the one-armed man, I'm very disappointed, I never saw the series when it was on ABC-TV in the 60s so every episode is first-run to me. It was an incredibly well-done show with great actors such as Robert Duvall making appearances.

Really. What were they thinking?

Just go ahead and flip it to some foreign language and be done with it.
 
And in the "adding insult to injury" department, KTXD's PSIP Guide still lists the Me-TV shows they aren't broadcasting anymore. So we all get to see names of all the shows we can't watch anymore.

But they finally got the Tribune (Zap2It, WMC) guides updated today. I'm looking them over now:
Hmm - on now is "Charlie's Angels," which is also seen on Cozi (5.2)
... same KTXD-produced shows
... a movie (could be interesting)
... "Cold Case Files," also seen on RTV (31.4). "Cold Case" is on Ion (68.1), but I never watch this so I'm not sure if they're the same program.
... "Cash Cab;" seriously?
... same religious shows overnight

Not much else until tomorrow PM. "Married with Children" is also on Ion. Looks like they also have "Barney Miller," "Bewitched," and "I Dream of Jeannie" (also on Antenna 33.2) on the schedule.

"Designing Women" (my wife used to watch that on KFWD/52, pre-MundoFox), "Mad About You," "Starsky and Hutch," "Hart to Hart, "Police Story," and "Fantasy Island" seem to be unique to KTXD-TV/47.

Not seeing much on the weekend. Saturday is mostly sports and Sunday is mostly religion. Then lather, rinse, repeat.

It's OK, I guess; but it's certainly no Me-TV. I don't even think it's as good as KFWD/52's pre-MundoFox schedule.
 
Yes; it seems like the Me-TV affiliation was just beginning to pay off for them, then - wham! Maybe it'll work out for them but at first glance, this seems like the dumbest marketing move since New Coke.

Wait: maybe that's their ploy. Take Me-TV off for a few months, wait for the complaints to pile up, then bring it back as "D-TV 'Classic.'" ;)

BTW, looks like they got the PSIP guide updated to match their new lineup. Cash Cab was listed on my Pal late last night.
 
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So in the few days since KTXD pulled off this bone-headed move, they have lost about 90% of the ratings they had. (I have a source that sees the overnights) The new lineup of shows has very few viewers because, of course, no one knows those shows are on. Their local shows continue to draw primarily zeros in the ratings (a few quarter hours get some viewers.) It seems the national trades are now picking up on the outcry from fans of Me-TV: http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/496446-Dallas_Viewers_Want_Their_Me_TV.php Seriously, go read the list of angry comments here: http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/talkback/496338-KTXD_Dallas_Splits_With_Me_TV.php

Best news out of all of this is that Me-TV is apparently talking with some local station about picking up the network. Pretty sure it won't be on the .1 of a full-power station, but it would be nice to have it back in some way or another.
 
Interesting tidbit in the above B&C article:
Me-TV continues to air on the subchannels of other London Broadcasting stations.
So, as Bob suggested earlier, why isn't KTXD doing the same, continuing to air Me-TV on 47.4 even if they've decided to be a "true independent station" on 47.1? I think London needs to have a serious talk with KTXD's general manager. You can't be a "purist" in a market where 27 airs Bounce and 33 airs This!

Even if I thought 47.1's new lineup was impressive, it takes time to build a viewing audience. You often need to be willing to lose money for years waiting for your viewers to find you. And even if this new lineup eventually starts to work for them, we have no guarantee that KTXD won't pull this again in another year or two.


Speculation about where Me-TV will end up? 8, 33, and 68 are all pretty full, 2 and 13 are non-commercial, and 11 and 21 are CBS-owned and CBS doesn't "do" subchannels. So those are all out.

KXAS used to have a 5.3 (when Universal Sports was on); maybe Me-TV could appear there.

4.2 is a possibility. The "Fox splicer" would put a crimp in KDFW's Dyle (M/H) service, but maybe they could move that to 27 (and tell all 12 Dyle users in the Metroplex to rescan :rolleyes: ).

Or one of the Spanish stations could pick it up. 49 is supposedly planning something similar with GetTV (a new movies channel), and 23, 29, 39, and 52 all have room. 55 is full, but a couple of their subchannels are infomercial channels. Me-TV could easily replace one.

Or it could end up on an LPTV station. With all the simulcasts and infomercials, there would seem to be plenty of room there.

31.2 would seem a reasonable fit for Me-TV, alongside Hot-TV and RTV; but K31GL reception has been marginal since February. I hope it winds up elsewhere.
 
Speculation about where Me-TV will end up? 8, 33, and 68 are all pretty full, 2 and 13 are non-commercial, and 11 and 21 are CBS-owned and CBS doesn't "do" subchannels. So those are all out.

I think WFAA can do without Live Well and the third-rate syndicated cooking and lifestyle shows repeated 3-4 times a week and grab a bigger share of the subchannel audience by flipping 8.3 to Me-TV.
 
I think you're right. But they dumped This! in favor of Live Well, which is how This! ended up on 33.3 (with much less bandwidth, BTW :( ).

Similarly, KPXD could do well by flipping 68-4 to Me-TV. But Ion doesn't seem to leave their local affiliates much discretion to do things like that.
 
KPXD is out for the reason stated above.

4 is a possibility because they have bandwidth available and Fox now has a relationship with Weigel due to Movies! Co-owned 27 is full.

5 probably not simply because they seem to not be willing to do channels they don't own. Same goes for co-owned 39.

8 is a maybe, but they would have to ditch Live Well. (Which would be no loss IMHO)

11 & 21 are out because CBS doesn't do subchannels.

23 is a maybe only because co-owned 49 is doing a subchannel.

29 seems unlikely.

33 is full.

52 is a maybe only because they have available bandwidth for a good .2 station.

55 is full.

All the other full-power stations are either noncoms or religious or both.

Any of the LP stations would love to lease bandwidth to Weigel, but it seems unlikely they would go that route.
 
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