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TheCoolTV sued by Journal for non-payment, losing Journal stations

N

nathannah

It seemed like TheCoolTV was one of the more successful subchannel networks out there, but it looks like it may be moving more towards the direction of the doomed subchannel pioneer The Tube now that the first big station group that picked it up, Journal Communications, is suing it for $257k for "non-payment of broadcast services". And it's dumping it from their Wisconsin stations for Live Well in Milwaukee and MeTV in Green Bay, with more to come since it's the biggest carrier of the channel outside of LIN TV.

Not a very good sign, as they're a very good network, but if you can't pay the bills, what can you do? Hopefully they can get things resolved, but it'll be interesting to see what happens with Sinclair and LIN on their sides in regards to the lawsuit.
 
I've been wanting to checkout The Cool TV since it launched, but no one in the Chicago market wants to pick up the network. It's unfortunate that this network might fail like The Tube did. The Tube didn't get a lot of exposure in the pre-transitional digital days, which hurt them.

In Milwaukee with Journal Broadcasting pulling the network, Sinclair might pick them up & put it on WVTV. Milwaukee & Las Vegas are the only 2 markets where Sinclair does not carry The Cool TV, due to Journal Broadcasting having the rights to the network. As for LIN Broadcasting & The Cool TV, LIN has pulled it off of WTHI (along with the radar channel) in order to have enough bandwidth available to carry Fox on a subchannel. Nexstar somehow has a duopoly in Terre Haute with WTWO & WAWV (WAWV via Mission Broadcasting), & their dispute with Fox nearly caused Fox to not be available in that market. Supposedly, LIN has removed The Cool TV from WANE-TV in Fort Wayne, IN as well. I wouldn't be surprised if LIN also removes the network from Indiana stations WNDY Marion & WLFI Lafayette as well. LIN signed a deal to carry Bounce in a number of their markets, & supposedly, Bounce might replace The Cool TV in Fort Wayne.
 
Dave said:
I've been wanting to checkout The Cool TV since it launched, but no one in the Chicago market wants to pick up the network. It's unfortunate that this network might fail like The Tube did. The Tube didn't get a lot of exposure in the pre-transitional digital days, which hurt them.

In Milwaukee with Journal Broadcasting pulling the network, Sinclair might pick them up & put it on WVTV. Milwaukee & Las Vegas are the only 2 markets where Sinclair does not carry The Cool TV, due to Journal Broadcasting having the rights to the network. As for LIN Broadcasting & The Cool TV, LIN has pulled it off of WTHI (along with the radar channel) in order to have enough bandwidth available to carry Fox on a subchannel. Nexstar somehow has a duopoly in Terre Haute with WTWO & WAWV (WAWV via Mission Broadcasting), & their dispute with Fox nearly caused Fox to not be available in that market. Supposedly, LIN has removed The Cool TV from WANE-TV in Fort Wayne, IN as well. I wouldn't be surprised if LIN also removes the network from Indiana stations WNDY Marion & WLFI Lafayette as well. LIN signed a deal to carry Bounce in a number of their markets, & supposedly, Bounce might replace The Cool TV in Fort Wayne.
Click to expand...

I'm thinking that Sinclair would pick up TheCoolTV, but on WCGV instead on their DT3 channel because of their 'who cares' MyNetworkTV schedule and because Sinclair goes out of their way to avoid subchannels on 1080i signals as much as possible (they only put them on there in non-duopoly or MyNet subchannel situations). LIN's WLUK in Green Bay has never carried a subchannel themselves and I don't expect them to start to because of the market since the audience would not lend itself well to Bounce TV.

The better thing out of this though is there's much relief that Live Well is going to WTMJ rather than WISN; many were fearing it was going there in 720p, when WISN is one of the few ABC's in the nation with a completely uncompressed and high-quality 1080i signal that blasts a full 18 Mbps signal which is even prized among the Chicago, Green Bay and Madison viewers that can grab it.
 
mrschimpf said:
I'm thinking that Sinclair would pick up TheCoolTV, but on WCGV instead on their DT3 channel because of their 'who cares' MyNetworkTV schedule and because Sinclair goes out of their way to avoid subchannels on 1080i signals as much as possible (they only put them on there in non-duopoly or MyNet subchannel situations).
Click to expand...

Since when? In every duopoly case where it is applicable except WMYA, WDKA, and WMMP, they've placed The Cool TV on one and TCN on the other. WLOS carries WMYA on a subchannel and KBSI carries WDKA on a subchannel due to the mismatched signal patterns in those cases, thus one of the two would have to be doubled up anyway in those cases. WMMP is the only one that is doubled up for a completely unknown reason.

http://www.rabbitears.info/search.php?request=owner_search&owner=Sinclair

I fully expect it to be on WVTV 18-2.

- Trip
 
tripinva said:
mrschimpf said:
I'm thinking that Sinclair would pick up TheCoolTV, but on WCGV instead on their DT3 channel because of their 'who cares' MyNetworkTV schedule and because Sinclair goes out of their way to avoid subchannels on 1080i signals as much as possible (they only put them on there in non-duopoly or MyNet subchannel situations).
Click to expand...

Since when? In every duopoly case where it is applicable except WMYA, WDKA, and WMMP, they've placed The Cool TV on one and TCN on the other. WLOS carries WMYA on a subchannel and KBSI carries WDKA on a subchannel due to the mismatched signal patterns in those cases, thus one of the two would have to be doubled up anyway in those cases. WMMP is the only one that is doubled up for a completely unknown reason.

http://www.rabbitears.info/search.php?request=owner_search&owner=Sinclair

I fully expect it to be on WVTV 18-2.

- Trip
Click to expand...

I guess they have changed it since I last compared subchannels when TCN was beginning to be put on Sinclair stations, my apologies. Then again though, it's possible the Milwaukee stations won't do anything with Cool, so we'll see.
 
If Journal has a valid point, then TheCoolTV would be having problems paying all of its affiliates (if that's how the affiliation agreements go for them). Sinclair may not want to add them to stations in the markets they lost by Journal dropping them if this is the case.
 
mrschimpf said:
The better thing out of this though is there's much relief that Live Well is going to WTMJ rather than WISN; many were fearing it was going there in 720p, when WISN is one of the few ABC's in the nation with a completely uncompressed and high-quality 1080i signal that blasts a full 18 Mbps signal which is even prized among the Chicago, Green Bay and Madison viewers that can grab it.
Click to expand...

Trip already covered the subchannel bit. I will cover the part I kept for quoting. Don't be surprised if WISN eventually adds subchannels in the future. Hearst Argyle has signed agreements to carry some networks on their stations. I don't remember all of them off-hand, but I do know that they did sign agreements to carry MeTV & This TV for some stations (Weigel has the rights in Milwaukee for these networks) along with Estrella TV. I don't know what they could put on WISN, since Weigel also has the Milwaukee rights (along with Chicago) to carry Bounce, & Journal will replace The Cool TV with the Livewell Network. One day, the bitrate will go down for WISN, but doubt it'll be much. Anyway, WISN has no need to go 1080i since ABC's native HD is 720p. If I remember correctly, WISN used to be 720p.
 
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