That's going to change tremendously if WHDH goes Independent. There'll be a whole lot more hours of weekends, I promise you.
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NBC Boston channel speculation.
- Thread starter Garrett
- Start date
That's going to change tremendously if WHDH goes Independent. There'll be a whole lot more hours of weekends, I promise you.
http://www.bostonherald.com/entertainment/inside_track/2016/08/channel_7_to_go_almost_all_news
The news station..they will run 87 hrs of news per wk plus stuff like Family Feud, post NBC
The news station..they will run 87 hrs of news per wk plus stuff like Family Feud, post NBC
Holy sheep sh*t....87 hours a week? Thats more than HALF of the programing (there is only 168 hours a week)
But wait NBC has moved transmitters before remember KNTV (NBC Bay Area) during Granites ownership was located in Loma Prieta Peak. When KNTV was in the Process of changing owners from Granite to NBC they wanted KNTV to be in the San Bruno Mountains in South San Francisco to cover the entire bay area DMA.
Remember that nobody can move anything until after the TV repack auction is done...which hopefully won't be too much longer.
There is some scuttlebutt from an NBC staffer in Rio for the Olympics that Hearst is discussing swapping WCVB/channel 5 (ABC) to NBC, along with its other ABC stations. Hearst is said to want to sell its 20% stakes in ESPN in exchange for making their ABC stations NBC. Not confirmed by any means, so it's still a holding pattern.
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IF that happens and NBC buys WCVB, what happens to WMUR?
How many years does WCVB and Hearst have with the ABC contract? Is this viable. How about WTMU that station was also a target for the NBC affiliation too since they currently hold the telemundo affiliation for now.
New england one says until 2021 they have an agreement with abc. I think they have more NBC stations then ABC I could be wrong though.
NBC in Boston may end up in TV 68, AGAIN!!!
As of now, you may have heard that WHDH is having it's NBC affiliation taken away by Comcast, which may or may not break Comcast's promise to the FCC to bring NBC over the air in the entire market, with WNEU breaking the promise. If WBPX becomes NBC, that means it will be the farthest station (in channel number) that is an O&O in any market, which is unusual for a station in the 50s or 60s position, not counting WOGX (they are a satellite station, WBPX is a presumed full-on affiliate). (virtual channel)
Here is the links:
http://www.bostonherald.com/entertainment/inside_track/2016/05/whdh_nbc_scramble_in_wake_of_ugly_split WARNING! Article is archived and it costs money. If you want to save money, here is the link on the Wikipedia page for WBPX-TV.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WBPX-TV
As of now, you may have heard that WHDH is having it's NBC affiliation taken away by Comcast, which may or may not break Comcast's promise to the FCC to bring NBC over the air in the entire market, with WNEU breaking the promise. If WBPX becomes NBC, that means it will be the farthest station (in channel number) that is an O&O in any market, which is unusual for a station in the 50s or 60s position, not counting WOGX (they are a satellite station, WBPX is a presumed full-on affiliate). (virtual channel)
Here is the links:
http://www.bostonherald.com/entertainment/inside_track/2016/05/whdh_nbc_scramble_in_wake_of_ugly_split WARNING! Article is archived and it costs money. If you want to save money, here is the link on the Wikipedia page for WBPX-TV
.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WBPX-TV
Much of the NBC speculation seems pretty far fetched. About, the only stations not yet suggested as possible future NBC stations are WGBH, WBZ, and WSBK. Comcast / NBC Universal doesn't need anything more than a transmitter with a good signal - they already have the studios covered at NECN.
Using the miserable WNEU signal puts them at a competitive disadvantage, and invites a great deal of viewer and political wrath.
From a purely logical point of view - WMFP is the most obvious solution. It sure can't be raking in huge profits from SonLife - the main value is its worth in the spectrum auction. WNEU also has value in the spectrum auction. So if Comcast / NBC Universal makes the right offer to WMFP owner NRJ to swap ownership - NBC would get a great signal, and NRJ would still have a Boston market station to sell in the auction if they want to - and in the meantime would have Telemundo, more valuable than SonLife, and keep the must-carry status with FIOS, RCN, etc.
If WMFP doesn't work out, then WBPX is the other likely, but possibly more expensive solution. ION has 3 stations with identical programming in the Boston market - WBPX, WPXG (Concord, NH), and WDPX (Vineyard Haven). If ION sold to Comcast / NBC Universal, they could claim must-carry for WPXG or WDPX, and stay on cable. WPXG, not WBPX, is already the must-carry on many cable systems in NH and northern MA.
Using the miserable WNEU signal puts them at a competitive disadvantage, and invites a great deal of viewer and political wrath.
From a purely logical point of view - WMFP is the most obvious solution. It sure can't be raking in huge profits from SonLife - the main value is its worth in the spectrum auction. WNEU also has value in the spectrum auction. So if Comcast / NBC Universal makes the right offer to WMFP owner NRJ to swap ownership - NBC would get a great signal, and NRJ would still have a Boston market station to sell in the auction if they want to - and in the meantime would have Telemundo, more valuable than SonLife, and keep the must-carry status with FIOS, RCN, etc.
If WMFP doesn't work out, then WBPX is the other likely, but possibly more expensive solution. ION has 3 stations with identical programming in the Boston market - WBPX, WPXG (Concord, NH), and WDPX (Vineyard Haven). If ION sold to Comcast / NBC Universal, they could claim must-carry for WPXG or WDPX, and stay on cable. WPXG, not WBPX, is already the must-carry on many cable systems in NH and northern MA.
http://www.bizjournals.com/sanjose/stories/2004/08/09/daily40.html
Guys NBC has moved transmitters before. See this article when the San Francisco NBC O&O KNTV "NBC Bay Area" moved from Loma Prieta Peak to South San Francisco back in 2004. Its just we have to wait for NBC to either move WNEU or WTMU to an area near Downtown Boston and maximize their ERP to cover the entire Boston DMA.
Guys NBC has moved transmitters before. See this article when the San Francisco NBC O&O KNTV "NBC Bay Area" moved from Loma Prieta Peak to South San Francisco back in 2004. Its just we have to wait for NBC to either move WNEU or WTMU to an area near Downtown Boston and maximize their ERP to cover the entire Boston DMA.
There are many restrictions in place about transmitter changes during the spectrum auction, but it might be possible technically to move it to one of the Needham towers, since the only ch 34 potentially affected would be the low power station in Hartford.
Assuming, of course, that the post-auction repacking doesn't change the channel relationships WNEU has. If WNEU winds up adjacent to a station in Providence, for example, it may not be able to move into Boston.
- Trip
http://www.fybush.com North East Radio Watch (subscription or purchase column)
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Frank
You may not include any information from a subscription or purchase column. Thanks for your understanding.
Frank
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What if NBC Boston is put on a subchannel of WCVB and gets remapped to a different virtual #? NBC leases a subchannel? And they also put it on a subchannel of channel 60 remapped to the same virtual # on WCVB. NBC runs the channel and gets it ota. They can run two channels at 720p with a 480i 3rd subchannel for MeTV.
you can have multiple PSIP numbers on a RF station. There are areas where this is done (the big one being where a station has both a VHF and UHF station in the market)
In Denver the NBC (KUSA) is on RF9 which maps to 9-1, 9-2, 9-3. They also own My affiliate KTVD (RF19 PSIP 20). They put a copy of KUSA on there and it remaps to 9-4.
Although I cant see ABC "helping" out a competitor
you can have multiple PSIP numbers on a RF station. There are areas where this is done (the big one being where a station has both a VHF and UHF station in the market)
In Denver the NBC (KUSA) is on RF9 which maps to 9-1, 9-2, 9-3. They also own My affiliate KTVD (RF19 PSIP 20). They put a copy of KUSA on there and it remaps to 9-4.
Although I cant see ABC "helping" out a competitor
Not ABC, WCVB is owned by Hearst. Isn't there something supposed to be going on with Hearst and Comcast? Comcast gets NBC Boston ota and runs it and they pay Hearst money just like they do to get WCVB on Xfinity.
In NYC, Fox has channels 5 & 9 on digital subchannels of each other mapping to the other virtual channel.
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