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PISS-POOR DIGITAL PROBLEMS on WMFP 62/1 ME-TV
- Thread starter mysticnitekatt
- Start date
- are they allergic to Perry Mason?
N
necrat123
Guest
whdh1920 said:
They're working on the tower were the transmitter is located at, still.
The aforementioned problems still persist after 9 weeks - and they acknowledged it's on WMFP's end. not on theirs. Apparently it DOESN'T have anything to do with the transmitter work,either.
NRJ doesn't give a damn about their stations - running them on auto-plot and using infomercials and direct response ads for revenue They bought these these stations as a "Spectrum Speculator" in hopes of auctioning off the spectrum to wireless broadband providers if the FCC gets their way.
I so hope that doesn't happen and they are stuck with these stations!
http://www.tvnewscheck.com/article/2012/02/03/57247/nrj-asks-fcc-to-ok-228m-buy-of-wsah
Wiegel wanted so badly to displace RTV in Boston and get a foothold in the NY DMA (Barely) that they gave too many concessions away to NRJ regarding infomercial blocks.
NRJ doesn't give a damn about their stations - running them on auto-plot and using infomercials and direct response ads for revenue They bought these these stations as a "Spectrum Speculator" in hopes of auctioning off the spectrum to wireless broadband providers if the FCC gets their way.
I so hope that doesn't happen and they are stuck with these stations!
http://www.tvnewscheck.com/article/2012/02/03/57247/nrj-asks-fcc-to-ok-228m-buy-of-wsah
Wiegel wanted so badly to displace RTV in Boston and get a foothold in the NY DMA (Barely) that they gave too many concessions away to NRJ regarding infomercial blocks.
mysticnitekatt said:
American Tower has been doing massive work, at the site of a recent tower death that requires the stations to take safety precautions. Since WMFP is near the top spot, they must sign off while workers are on the tower. If you happen to see other tenants on the tower still on the air while WMFP is off, this is because they either have a second site aux transmitter or serve the cable companies via fiber.
Think about this... a major broadcast company owned by one of the most vocal and well known people in the industry will not purposely allow this to happen in the #5 market in the country, either purposely or through neglect.
Ron. said:
The issues that are happing with WMFP's digitization, freezing pixilation does has NOTHING to do with the transmitter work - they've said as much on the MeTV board - Somewhere between receiving the feed to it going out, is causing the issue. The broadcast signal itself has been fine - 92% or higher OTA (5 miles north of Boston), and on Cable and DirecTV. (I have all 3) It is still happening at all hours during MeTV network shows. Mind you, these issues don't seem to happen on 62.1 during the infomercials. (I've watch the time-life infomercials and spot record others.) Why it hasn't been addressed yet, I don't know - perhaps the transmitter work is taking precedent. I'm well aware of the work being done.
What's the word for Cable Carriage for WMFP 62.2 and your own 43.2 - There been no word or reports of ANY cable systems in the Boston DMA for pick-ups. What about 43.2 - Why is NRJ treating the .2 and RTV as the "red headed step-child" - There's a lot of speculation among classic TV fans that it was only moved over to the .2 till the contracts run out? You'd think they'd want to monetize the sub-channel by getting carriage.
Honestly, from reading in the trades, I do beleive NRJ would release all their stations for auction if the spectrum sell-off happens - and the trades do as well.
mysticnitekatt said:
What you've said makes absolutely no sense. If it's good off air at your house then it will be good everywhere else as WMFP does not have an extensive fiber ring network like we do at WSAH. If its digitizing on Comcast, then it must be an issue with Comcast. I find it a little hard to believe that DirecTV will have the same issue, but stranger things have happened. But both are taken off air like everyone else.
We are only a few -weeks- into this... subchannel carriage does not magically happen, there is no subchannel carriage tree, there are no rules stating the cable systems have to carry them. Most subchannels are part of retransmission consent agreements (of which we are not eligible), you will be hard pressed to find the subchannels of any independent or smaller than big-three stations. On my system at home, which is arguably the one of the best (JD Power ratings) you will not even find the Telemundo or ION subchannels. There is a subchannel of the former CW/WB/whatever-they-are-this-week station, but only because they are co-owned by a Fox station. Oddly, you will not find the Fox subchannel.
Given the bad repuation that these stations had in the Shop At Home and Multicultural days, cable operators are unwilling to believe that any network affiliation is going to last longer than 2 months.
Its kind of creepy that you are spot recording WMFP, hoping to catch something? What exactly do you hope to do with it when you have it?
"What you are reading in the trades" is one article, by someone with no facts to back up their claim, in a one-off piece. NRJ is committed to running these stations right. If they weren't, they'd just put some shopping on it, or even dark it for 359.99 days a year, and be done with it.
Ron. said:
What doesn't make sense - The signal being received by WMFP from MeTV is developing some issues between the point being received and being transmitted - Call it a "hiccup" in the feed - the transmitted signal is stable it's WHAT is being broadcast out that is the problem. Never happens during the infomercials - a different feed or broadcast directly from master control?
On a post on the Facebook MeTV board on a thread about this issue there was the following post from Neal Sabin "MeTV is aware of the issues in Boston and trying to help the station get it right" (December 31, 2011) I later post stated the problem was still being worked on.
I KNOW sub-channel carriage doesn't automatically happen - but there was plenty of run up in Boston (if not for your station) to get things started. Bad enough NRJ basically threw RTV under a bus pushing it over to the .2 and not evening let viewers know on-air, (In Boston anyway - did you do any sort of crawl or on-screen card) your average viewer things MeTV is just a re-branding on RTV. I'm a rather vocal supporter of RTV - sure they've had some issues in the past and are still getting house in order programing wise - but they are still a good network.
How are things coming along getting 42.1 on all the cable systems in your DMA.
Is NRJ committed to RTV in the long run on their stations/sub-channels where they air it? I see that there national feed it being used,which surprised me as I expected they'd still with the customized feed and still sell infomercial time.
That was not the first time TVNEWSCHECK in articles on NRJ (By various writers) that have referred to NRJ as a "spectrum speculator" and the reference has been used elsewhere.
Even if NRJ is committed to there station, It seems to me they run them on "auto pilot". Take Boston, without any local sales force so infomercials and direct response ads are their only source of revenue. It's been proven that both RTV and now MeTV get strong,loyal viewership - you'd think local advertisers would want to tap into that. What about your station? Are you getting a sales team together?
If there has to be infomercials - It's the placement that is a little odd. Boston has 10pm-2am? Now I see the advantage of NOT running infomercials between 2am to 6pm when most other stations are running them - but a 10pm start? (and here in Boston, the Time-Life ones run almost every night at 10pm - smart move.) Why not cut into the morning day-parts going longer than 6am-9am as was done when RTV was on the main channel.
I thought I'd spot check a few segments in the day as I was curious to see if the issue is any better or worse,or if there are issues on infomercials. So I could email MeTv and let them know to talk to the engineers about the issues and when they happened - I just would like to enjoy MeTV without any issues just as I have with RTV over the last couple of years.
I agree that NRJ as owner does not give me a lot of confidence we'll see classic tv in Boston long term. I am still surprizes channel 7 didn't do a 7.3 and take me. (they have this tv which is owned by the same company) I think I read somewhere that network owned stations can't have subchannels (that's a big problem in Boston)
I think an all classic station with .1 as metv, .2 as rtv, and .3 as antenna tv would be great. Probably have to move to a much smaller market to get that.
I'll take 62.1 and 62.2 as it is compared to the weekly network stuff. PBS and their subs are very good too.
I think an all classic station with .1 as metv, .2 as rtv, and .3 as antenna tv would be great. Probably have to move to a much smaller market to get that.
I'll take 62.1 and 62.2 as it is compared to the weekly network stuff. PBS and their subs are very good too.
CMATV said:
I was actually surprised that Hearst didn't pick up MeTV for WCVB 5.2 as they did with WMUR 9.2 - but then keeping in mind MeTV's "rape and pillaging" of RTV by taking their key affiliates was one of the motivations of getting 62.1 and 43.1, which were a big score for them.
I still say MeTV gave too many concessions to get on 62,1 and 43.1 regarding the large infomercial blocks - including in late prime time and weekend mornings and early afternoon!
mysticnitekatt said:
It's still alot less than it was before.
Ron. said:
Less only because the infomercials time is being sold in better slots - here in Boston, before the RTV switch-out, there was no infomercials in the 10pm-12pm block or Saturday-Sunday 12pm-2pm slots. Now you have these slots which can command more than the re-switchover infomercial blocks being replaced by MeTV programing 2am-6am daily and 9am-12pm weekdays - so while it's less, it's WHERE the blocks are that is the difference.
If they switched the 10p-12a infomercials with the ME programming , it wouldn't seem that bad. I just switch over to WJAR 10.2 at 10 pm via OTA. I am one of the lucky ones that can receive (2) ME-TV's 62.1 10.2 , (2) THIS TV 7.2(WHDH) 20.2(WCCT) , RTV 62.2 , and ANTENNA TV 61.2(WTIC) all OTA. If Directv's AM-21 OTA receiver could scan , I could have all of these intergrated into my Directv receivers. Instead I can only intergrate 62.1 ,62.2 , 7.2 and 20.2. The AM-21 only lets you put in 2 zip codes , so I am unable to get 10.2 and 61.2(only because they won't put this in its AM-21 database). I don't think WMFP or WSAH will ever ease up on the infomercials no matter how much we complain .
djblaze said:
Yes, As it's easier than actually having a REAL sales staff to sell REAL local adverting.
I could see throwing the infomercials after midnight or right after "Perry Mason" at 12:30. But in "prime-time", come on? The moment I see the slide for an infomercial on WMFP, I turn off the channel and go to WJAR 10.2 (OTA). Sadly, we only get WJAR 10.1 on the cable, but not the 10.2 (MeTV) counterpart. So, I'm glad that at least my bedroom set still gets WJAR 10.2 from a UHF antenna (RF 51). MeTV has some great classics during the 10:00 PM until 12:30 AM slot. It sucks that we can't even get "Svengoolie" on Saturday nights at 10. I had a feeling all along that WMFP would "Swiss cheese" the sked. Oh well.......djblaze said:
If their current facilities can handle a third feed, WMFP could allocate another subchannel - 62-3, and put Me-TV on that when running infomercials on must-carry 62-1. They could run infos at a discount rate on 62-3 when Me-TV is on 62-1, or stay full time with Me-TV, even when duplicating 62-1. Weigel would likely allow it - the whole lineup would then be carried in Boston, even if only fully viewable over-the-air.
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