Tommorrow morning the NBC 15 programing moves to channel 3.2 and ROAR takes over 15.1.
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NBC Moves in Mobile
- Thread starter RadioRonnie285
- Start date
K.M. Richards
Program Director, The Eighties Channel™
Wow, NBC displaced from a .1 channel by one of the lesser diginets. Who would have thought we would live to see that?
Sinclair owns one and runs the other. They are moving it to their station they own. It’s been done before like Columbus, OH
K.M. Richards
Program Director, The Eighties Channel™
Still, in a relatively large market, one does not expect any of the Big Four to be relegated to a subchannel.
Of course, the choice of ROAR! is not surprising, as Sinclair owns that as well.
K.M. Richards
Program Director, The Eighties Channel™
Did I say "smaller markets"?
Also, I find it interesting that there is no mention of this on the WPMI website. At all.
Also, I find it interesting that there is no mention of this on the WPMI website. At all.
Here's why this one (and Fox in Columbus) happened:
It's entirely about retrans consent money from cable. Sinclair owns the WEAR license, but WPMI's license is owned by Deerfield.
For 98% of what the stations do from day to day, that's a meaningless distinction. Sinclair runs the operations of both stations, employs nearly all the staff, and gets the ad revenue.
But for retrans consent, the FCC still draws a line. Sinclair can't include WPMI in its negotiations when its deals with cable and satellite providers are up for renewal. Deerfield, such as it is, has to conduct its own negotiations for its own stations, and as a much smaller company, it has much less leverage.
By taking the NBC programming and switching it to the 3.2 over the air subchannel of WEAR, Sinclair can now include NBC Mobile-Pensacola in whatever large scale deals it makes with cable and satellite. And it can also force the Roar programming on 15.1 on to cable and satellite via must-carry.
NBC will stay on all of its usual channel positions for everyone except OTA viewers. For probably 90% of the market, nothing at all will change unless they're scrutinizing the legal ID during Sunday Night Football.
It's entirely about retrans consent money from cable. Sinclair owns the WEAR license, but WPMI's license is owned by Deerfield.
For 98% of what the stations do from day to day, that's a meaningless distinction. Sinclair runs the operations of both stations, employs nearly all the staff, and gets the ad revenue.
But for retrans consent, the FCC still draws a line. Sinclair can't include WPMI in its negotiations when its deals with cable and satellite providers are up for renewal. Deerfield, such as it is, has to conduct its own negotiations for its own stations, and as a much smaller company, it has much less leverage.
By taking the NBC programming and switching it to the 3.2 over the air subchannel of WEAR, Sinclair can now include NBC Mobile-Pensacola in whatever large scale deals it makes with cable and satellite. And it can also force the Roar programming on 15.1 on to cable and satellite via must-carry.
NBC will stay on all of its usual channel positions for everyone except OTA viewers. For probably 90% of the market, nothing at all will change unless they're scrutinizing the legal ID during Sunday Night Football.
Sinclair has been doing this for years. Similar to Scott’s detailing of Columbus OH, Sinclair has moved .1 networks and local brands to a .2 or .3 of its primary station with the former station typically moved to clearing Dabl or Roar. Often, the old identity initially moved to the new sub channel home — i.e. KFDM 6.3 Beaumont was still branded “Fox 4,” just like it was when it was on KBTV 4.1 when it moved over, though it just rebranded as “Fox Southeast Texas.”
Some of the other Sinclair markets with similar moves…
San Antonio: CW KMYS 35.1 (now Dabl) to WOAI 4.2
Baltimore: MNT WUTB 24.1 (now Roar) to WBFF 45.2
Greenville/Spartanburg/Asheville: MNT WMYA 40.1 (now Dabl) to WLOS 13.2
Wichita: MNT KMTW 36.1 (now Dabl) to KSAS 24.2
Omaha: CW KXVO 15.1 (now Roar) to KPTM 42.3
Dayton: Fox WRGT 45.1 (now Roar) to WKEF 22.2
Nashville: CW WNAB 58.1 (now Dabl) to WZTV 17.2
Cedar Rapids/Waterloo: Fox KFXA 28.1 (now Roar) to KGAN 2.2
Tallahassee: Fox WTLH 49.1 (now H&I) to WTWC 40.2
Myrtle Beach: CW WWMB 21.1 (now Dabl) to WPDE 15.2
Beaumont/Port Arthur/Orange: Fox KBTV 4.1 (originally to Dabl; now Roar) to KFDM 6.3
South Bend: Fox WSJV 28.1 (now H&I) to WSBT 22.2
Sioux City: CBS KMEG 14.1 (now Dabl) to KPTH 44.2
Charleston/Huntington WV: Fox WVAH 11.1 (now Catchy Comedy) to WCHS 8.2
They've been running a short PSA ad over the air during commercial breaks, at least during local newscasts (I don't watch NBC any other time). It's pretty short and light on specifics, just saying to rescan and that NBC is moving to 3.2 tomorrow.
I do wonder if at some point there will be a re-branding to "NBC Gulf Coast" or something similar to the Fox situation in Beaumont.
Edit to add: I just realized this will mean that WPMI will once again be sort-of an independent for the first time since 1997. I mean, I guess technically it'll be an affiliate of Roar, but as far the major networks goes, it's been NBC since then.
They didn't until 9:10 this morning and they make it seem like "over-the-air" viewers are completely unwanted and basically that you should be subscribing to one of the many ways they can get retransmission revenue instead.
No, at least not as far as the FCC is concerned. Any given TV license has only one callsign for all of the subchannels it carries, so the legal callsign for 3.2 is still WEAR-TV.
However, for syndicators and ad agencies to track these subchannels, Sinclair and other companies adopt placeholder "callsigns" for some of them, and so internally and for some external purposes, "WEAR" (3.1) is now accompanied by "EEAR" (3.2), in much the same way that the CW outlet here in Rochester, on the 13.2 of ABC affiliate WHAM-TV, goes by "EHAM."
Those aren't FCC-official callsigns, though, and really shouldn't be appearing on screen in station identifications, even though they often do.
I don't read that article that way. The reality is that probably 90% or more of NBC15's viewers aren't watching OTA, so it's important to remind that vast majority of the viewing audience that for them, nothing at all changes. "NBC15" shows up exactly where they found it last week.
Interesting, but I don't understand why you had to rescan. Just networks switching to channels that have always existed. I do rescan every once in a while to see if anything new pops up
K.M. Richards
Program Director, The Eighties Channel™
If the channels are remapped in PSIP in the course of the switching, then your TV will still look for the programs on the PSIP channels they used to map to. Rescanning changes the PSIP table in your receiver.
Were they actual call signs both “EEAR” and “EHAM” would be in Spain.
Although the 3.2 virtual subchannel already exists, the station might have elected to use a different physical subchannel for some reason after the programming switch. Also in many receivers the saved channel ID/branding info won’t update until a rescan is performed.
Ah, I was wondering why rescanning was so important. I know with my two TVs, as soon as I tuned to one of the stations, the lineup updated immediately. In fact I'd tuned first to 3.3 and it took it a few seconds to realize there was nothing there and kicked me to 44.2 for some reason, lol.
since WEAR is carrying 44.2 & 44.3 in the mux due to WJTC being 3.0 that might be why it went to that channel.