I remember when WXYZ was added to the cable dial in Calgary. It was around 89 or 90, and NBC was king on Thursday nights, with Cheers, the Cosby show, etc. It was offered as a way to see all those shows 3 hours earlier, since we had to wait until 10 pm to get in on the Spokane channels. It wasn't free though, we had to subscribe to it, while Spokane was just basic cable.
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BRNout said:
Some places which otherwise carry Detroit stations have opted to carry a different CBS affiliate. Some places in Southern Ontario carry WIVB instead, and Sudbury carries WWUP instead. Further east WBZ may be found among Detroit stations. As for WWJ, it continues to have no local news operation, but they added live weather updates in January 2008.
gr8oldies said:
We have what is called "simultaneous substitution", or sim-subbing for short. I just watched Law & Order SVU on the cable channel normally occupied by WDIV (NBC), but for the hour that show was on, CKCO (CTV) was fed to that channel as CTV airs L&O SVU at the same time as NBC. So it's not quite a blackout, as you still get the same show on the channel the show is supposed to be on, but you get the Canadian version instead.
KML-224 said:
Yes, you're right, call letter mix up there. It was WDIV. Sorry. The rest of the story is right.
As for the simulcast of shows on both U.S. and Canadian stations, the cable company replaces the U.S. channel feed with the local Canadian channel, so you get the same commercials and programming on both stations. Even the station ID is the Canadian Channel. Fox becomes Global on Sunday nights, for example, and CBS becomes CTV.
Sometimes (when tuned to the U.S channel) you'll get the begining of a show, only to get it replaced by the end of a commercial and you have to see the whole 1 or 2 minutes you just saw all over again. Let's just say the cut-in/replacement of the U.S. channel isn't all that smo0th.
mimo said:
And in some cases, they make their viewers wait until it does come on the American channel -- last Super Bowl, CTV had rights to the game, while Global had rights to show that followed. At 10PM, instead of going to the program, Global (in eastern Canada) showed a special edition of "Global National" (their national newscast). When the American network began their show, anchor Kevin Newman left a news story in mid-story and told viewers that they'll now go to their program.
All that, just so they can simsub.
JeeperOne
Banned
Hi everyone:
I'm not sure where DirecTV's parent company is based out of though.
Hope this helps....
Cheers
That's because DISH Network's parent company EchoStar Communications is based out of Denver (Actually somewhere around Highlands Ranch, which is a Denver suburb).mleach said:
I'm not sure where DirecTV's parent company is based out of though.
Hope this helps....
Cheers
As far as Denver goes, KWGN is the only station from Denver licensed by the CRTC for carriage on cable or satellite in Canada. I am not aware of any cable system in Canada that actually carries KWGN. Nowadays, there would be no point.
Back ages ago I used to watch the Toronto area stations when we lived in Buffalo. From the southern burbs you could get a decent picture on CHCH-11, CFTO-9 and CBLT-5 (CBLT was a bit fuzzier than the rest). We didn't get any of the Rochester stations but once in awhile picked up WICU-12 in Erie, PA.
The nice thing about the canadian station in those days was, the carried many US show but on different nights. That way if you missed your favorite show you had a chance of catching it on Canadian TV. Plus it was fun watching TV from another country!
The nice thing about the canadian station in those days was, the carried many US show but on different nights. That way if you missed your favorite show you had a chance of catching it on Canadian TV. Plus it was fun watching TV from another country!
As luck would have it, I'm headed to Calgary and Edmonton this weekend and can check out the TV offerings while there. The last time I was in Edmonton, I recall that the cable system offered Spokane network affiliates. As Spokane is in the Pacific time zone, prime time started at 9 pm in Alberta and ran until midnight. Not very convenient. I do not recall seeing Detroit affiliates offered there at the time; however, it's possible that the hotel's cable didn't include them. It did include goodies such as KTLA and WPIX though.
That was back in 2000 and things may well have changed since then.
That was back in 2000 and things may well have changed since then.
cyberdad said:
Pretty much all the major cable systems across Canada carry WPCH. There was controversy when TBS became Peachtree TV because many were unaware TBS had a national feed and a local Atlanta feed (WTBS), and they thought TBS was entirely shut down.
M.J. said:
I think even some of us on the board who live or have lived in the U.S. didn't know there was a different feed for Atlanta and the rest of the world. I always thought it was a former UHF channel that became a national cable channel. I didn't know if they still had a local Atlanta service or not. When the change happened here, I couldn't understand why they went from being TBS to Peachtree. Besides Georgia being the Peach state, (and not noticing the call letter change) it made no sense to me. I've heard there's still some negotiations going on to bring TBS back to Canada, but haven't heard any updates.
mimo said:
There wasn't much of a program schedule difference between WTBS and TBS Superstation at the end. Other than commercials, I think WTBS ran some public affairs programming early in the AM and a half hour of Headline News, other than that it was the same as the national feed.
H
Horns
Guest
Back before they were CW, UPN, CBS (for a short time) KSTW 11 in Tacoma, Washington was a true Indy for many years. They were seen throughout Western Canada. A friend of mine did news there (they had a popular 10pm local newscast when no one else was doing 10pm news in Seattle) and he took a trip into BC. He quickly found he was a star in Western Canada!
S
searadiofreak
Guest
Horns said:
Now I understand why weathercasters in Seattle were always giving temps from interior B.C. when I was growing up! I remember former KOMO-TV weatherman Ray Ramsey especially liked to tell viewers what the temp was in Williams Lake. When I was a kid I could never figure that out!
Well, back from Alberta and I can tell you that analog cable in both Calgary and Edmonton carry all 5 Spokane affiliates. Also, WPIX and WSBK (in Calgary) were offered. Digital cable obviously carries a lot more, but none of the hotels offer that.
It was interesting to watch the Spokane affiliates cover the onslaught of heavy snow and winter weather there. Even the temperatures were below zero (Fahrenheit)! The big 3 affiliates there all had extended newscasts and seemed to do a great job - particularly when you consider Spokane's market size.
Also interesting were the local newscasts, which highlighted the extreme cold and snow that was gripping Alberta as well. The local newscasts in Calgary and Edmonton are okay, but not nearly as good (relatively speaking) as the national newscasts from CBC and CTV.
One thing I didn't know was that Calgary apparently can't deal with 6"-10" of snow! Several days with horrible roads and a disaster of an airport caused by an initial 6" dump, plus about 1" per day over the next 3 days. It was like Armageddon up there!! Drove by dozens of cars that spun out along the main highway. You would think that Calgarians would be able to deal with snow on the roads, but no. Little plowing and sanding and relatively poor winter driving skills were on display. That was a shocker. So, the newscasts were most interesting indeed last week. Snow in Chicago was a piece of cake by comparison.
Where's "global warming" when you need it? :
It was interesting to watch the Spokane affiliates cover the onslaught of heavy snow and winter weather there. Even the temperatures were below zero (Fahrenheit)! The big 3 affiliates there all had extended newscasts and seemed to do a great job - particularly when you consider Spokane's market size.
Also interesting were the local newscasts, which highlighted the extreme cold and snow that was gripping Alberta as well. The local newscasts in Calgary and Edmonton are okay, but not nearly as good (relatively speaking) as the national newscasts from CBC and CTV.
One thing I didn't know was that Calgary apparently can't deal with 6"-10" of snow! Several days with horrible roads and a disaster of an airport caused by an initial 6" dump, plus about 1" per day over the next 3 days. It was like Armageddon up there!! Drove by dozens of cars that spun out along the main highway. You would think that Calgarians would be able to deal with snow on the roads, but no. Little plowing and sanding and relatively poor winter driving skills were on display. That was a shocker. So, the newscasts were most interesting indeed last week. Snow in Chicago was a piece of cake by comparison.
Where's "global warming" when you need it?
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