"PIX" Picked off of Comcast in Vermont

[NO DAG]

What a bummer, WPIX has been bounced from Comcast cable in favor of the WFFF-TV DT2 version of the CW. Which means late night, the station offers no programming, just a screen that says "The CW Burlington".. Morning appears to have nothing but informercials.. so if your about to be bankrupt, depressed, want to make some money, and have bad complexion well you came to the right channel. At least WPIX is the real deal of a TV station and offers a lot more to the viewer than this 'digital subchannel'.. It appears that at least one real out-of-towner survives in WSBK from Boston.

Now that I have Comcast, moved, and dumped the dish, I don't know how I'll do my civic duty and ensure the proper coverage in the event that Rutland's most famous broadcast entity, W61CE, does it's usual "Thanksgiving Signal Failure" that keeps the screen black with a an 'alarm mode' note for 5 months, though I'll try to take one for the team !!

 

[smaug07]

Yeah cable is no where near as good as it used to be. Here in central Massachusetts, back in the late 70s to mid 80s, we had both WPIX and WOR from New York, as well as network stations from several nearby markets (Boston, Springfield, Providence, one from New Hampshire, and one from Hartford). Today, the local cable companies all have dropped both WPIX and WOR, and outside of maybe one or two out of market network affiliates, just Boston signals remain. This is all the direct result of the greed of local broadcasters. Almost all local broadcasters now claim exclusivity for their market, prohibiting cable companies from importing out of market signals. Since WPIX is a CW affiliate, and used to be a WB affiliate, most cable carriers in New England have dropped it in favor of local affiliates, or the national version of the network. If the CW ever stops broadcasting, and PIX becomes an indie again, perhaps maybe some cable outlets will pick it up, but I'd doubt it. Most out of market stations are becoming redundant of local stations, as most syndicated programming can be seen locally, and the once abundant sports programming that stations like WPIX used to carry are now gone for the most part. The appeal of "superstations" and out of market stations are dwindling fast and may soon be gone forever. I hope that does not happen because I love to watch programming from different cities. Fortunately, I live in an elevated area, and with my roof antenna, am able to receive stations from several markets, but most people can only receive decent signals via either cable or satellite. Expect out of market stations to be gone forever soon.

 

[necrat123]

The WPIX dropping was ordered by Tribune and has nothing to do with the local broadcasters.
It is why WPIX is no longer on just about all out of market cable systems.

 

[chuckydoll]

Here in central Massachusetts, back in the late 70s to mid 80s, we had both WPIX and WOR from New York, as well as network stations from several nearby markets (Boston, Springfield, Providence, one from New Hampshire, and one from Hartford). Today, the local cable companies all have dropped both WPIX and WOR, and outside of maybe one or two out of market network affiliates, just Boston signals remain. This is all the direct result of the greed of local broadcasters.

Another spendthrift hack churning out hippy-dippy [EDIT].

This ain't the Long-Haired 70's and this ain't the Greedy 80's. People in Central Mass. want local TV, NOT something from 200 miles away. Local TV for Central Mass. comes out of Boston, NOT Rhode Island or Connecticut or New York or New Hampshire or Western Mass.

Almost all local broadcasters now claim exclusivity for their market, prohibiting cable companies from importing out of market signals.

You've never been in New Hampshire or Vermont. WMUR-9 is on cable all across New Hampshire, even in the northern half. WCAX-3 is on cable all over Vermont, even in Bennington and Brattleboro. Comcast in Rutland carries the ABC and CBS stations from Albany 'cause they're high-power and are strong on news.

The appeal of "superstations" and out of market stations are dwindling fast and may soon be gone forever. I hope that does not happen because I love to watch programming from different cities.

Guess what, Mr. I Love Out-Of-Market TV? TBS is no longer a superstation. If it weren't for TBS you wouldn't have been able to see the Red Sox sweep the Angels in the first round of the playoffs. TBS could not do that as a superstation.

Fortunately, I live in an elevated area, and with my roof antenna, am able to receive stations from several markets, but most people can only receive decent signals via either cable or satellite.

[EDIT]


[EDIT-inflammatory]

 

[NO DAG]

Thanks for the 411 "Necrat123" that was very helpful. I'd like to see Comcast Rutland carry WNYT 13 from Albany. Got great over the air reception of that station in my prior residence. Arguably, WNYT has the best weather, and they do a better job covering weather for Rutland county than the Burlington stations.

 

[BRNout]

This ain't the Long-Haired 70's and this ain't the Greedy 80's. People in Central Mass. want local TV, NOT something from 200 miles away. Local TV for Central Mass. comes out of Boston, NOT Rhode Island or Connecticut or New York or New Hampshire or Western Mass.

Who says?

Tell people in Sturbridge that they don't care to see stations from Hartford or Springfield. Tell people from Pawtucket who work in Mass. (and there are a lot of them) that they don't want to see WBZ's or WCVB's newscasts. What if they like to have a choice? Call me crazy, but people do like to have a choice when it is something reasonable. Particularly when those stations would be really easy to offer, given the good signal that they send over northern RI.

Personally, I like the option of seeing another market's signals, their news, and the alternate football coverage that they may offer. If you can get it via antenna, it should be offered in some form on cable (within reason). In many parts of central Mass., you can get signals from 4 markets and pretty much equally. And, Fox's affiliates from Providence and Hartford cast better signals in some Worcester County towns than Fox 25 does - so why should viewers there be force fed the Boston station (only)? Because people like chuckydoll said so? No, it's because greed and money are involved.

You know, it is not unreasonable that the stronger stations from each market should be offered in this centrally located area, as they were 10+ years ago.

 

[dustintv]

Dang chuckydoll I know you're a big time hater on people who still use antennas but you truly out did yourself this time. Congratulations! Actually he made some contradictions in his post but they should be easy to see.

 

[fybush]

What "smaug" is missing with his attacks on "greedy" local broadcasters is this: the economics have changed dramatically in the last 15 years or so. In the old days, networks paid compensation TO local stations to carry their programming. Under that scheme, the local stations weren't especially concerned about other affiliates being carried on area cable systems. They made their money, and everyone went home more or less happy.

Today, most local stations are paying money TO the networks to carry their programming, and they're spending more than ever on syndicated programming, as well as putting out literally millions of dollars to build new digital/high-def plants that have thus far returned not a cent in revenue in most cases.

WNAC is paying Fox for territorial rights to an area that includes Bristol County. WFXT isn't (though the accounting's a little snaky there, since WFXT is a Fox O&O, so any "affiliation" payments would be internal anyway.) WNAC's bill for syndicated programming includes Bristol County viewership. WFXT's doesn't. Why shouldn't WNAC be able to recoup sales revenues from that area by making sure cable customers see its programming and not WFXT's?

Same deal in Vermont - WFFF is paying CW for what are supposed to be exclusive rights to its programming in the Burlington market. If a significant piece of that audience is watching WPIX instead, WFFF is losing those ratings and that ad revenue.

Yeah, it kind of sucks for those of us who remember when cable carried signals from all over. (Here in Rochester, we used to get most of the Buffalo and Syracuse signals, plus a couple from Canada and the three NYC indies.) And yeah, there should be some compromises so areas like SE Mass can see at least some news from the state capital. I think Cox is still carrying WHDH/WLVI newscasts on an access channel of one of its systems for just that reason. I'm also strongly in favor of waivers to allow out-of-market HD signals to be brought in when a local station can't or won't provide it. (Erie, PA still can't see HD on several networks, for instance.)

But times change...and believe it or not, very few local broadcasters are turning large profit margins at all these days. Given the cost of the Mount Mansfield DTV project, I wonder whether a station like WFFF/WVNY is profitable, period. I'm inclined toward at least a bit of sympathy toward those station owners.

 

[MarcB]

The WPIX dropping was ordered by Tribune and has nothing to do with the local broadcasters.
It is why WPIX is no longer on just about all out of market cable systems.

I hope they don't do that with COX Meriden. CW-11 WPIX is a better station than the two local Tribune Stations FOX 61/CW 20. Besides if we lost WPIX I'm sure COX would stick another all infomercial channel on channel 23. We already got 3 that carry infomercials for most of the day - COX Sports TV (3), WSAH/43 Bridgeport [8], and TV SuperStore (96). Plus on top of that they carry infomercials on Public Access TV 15 from 12AM -6AM and The aforementioned TV SuperStore is buying the overnight hours on WSAH (so we're getting duplicated infomercials).

 

[KML0224]

Don't feel too bad. WPIX-TV hasn't been on cable here in New Britain since June 30, 1990 (damn SYNDEX!). It was dropped for then-WTWS-TV channel 26 of New London the next day. It largely had to do with WTWS-TV carrying Yankees Baseball from WPIX at that time. Looking back on that move, it makes perfect sense now.

 

[Skynet74]

I am sure glad that we don't get Radio signals through a wire. Half of all Radio stations would probably be blocked out by greedy Corporations!