MeTV adds Wichita affiliate

[FightingIrish]

First one outside of the Weigel stations:

http://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=179094688789169&id=120877922783

Currently carry ThisTV affiliation on the main channel.

 

[mgsports]

Hopefully Topeka,Kansas City,Joplin,Springfield,Orlando and so on are next.

 

[carolinaradio]

GREAT news! Some people seem to think Antenna TV has their act together so much more than MeTV just because they launched with more coverage; truth is, had it not been for Antenna TV's parent company, Tribune, owning big-market stations, Antenna TV would have launched the exact same way...with very few affiliates and taking a while to sign them.

 

[FightingIrish]

GREAT news! Some people seem to think Antenna TV has their act together so much more than MeTV just because they launched with more coverage; truth is, had it not been for Antenna TV's parent company, Tribune, owning big-market stations, Antenna TV would have launched the exact same way...with very few affiliates and taking a while to sign them.

Subchannels such as RTV, Cool TV and ThisTV started out rather slowly, then affiliates seemingly jumped aboard all at once.

 

[OhioMediaWatch]

KCTU-LD is a rather interesting little LPTVer in Wichita, which according to its Wikipedia article, used to be the market's ION affiliate and even produced local news at one point.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KCTU-LD

It's locally-owned, and apparently runs This TV on 43.1, Untamed Sports TV on 43.3 and a religious feed on 43.4, with Me-TV on 43.2.

It puts out 2.7 kW, which looks (according to FCC contour maps, at least) looks to be enough to cover the immediate Wichita area.

It's not a group deal, obviously, so we can't read the tea leaves on who Me-TV is talking to. But as noted, it is the first deal outside the Weigel universe.

 

[OhioMediaWatch]

carolinaradio makes a good point.

Antenna TV would probably have had a few more affiliates at launch than Me-TV without Tribune, and closely associated Local TV (aka "Tribune Jr."), but probably not a lot more.

I think there are about 3-5 non Tribune/Local TV affiliates in their list.

We'll see what groups start showing up for Me-TV. I still expect it to land on existing non-Tribune This TV affiliates, including WUAB/43(.3) here in Cleveland, due to the common MGM distribution.