Vermont Public Television Starts Letter-Writing Campaign Against Cogeco

[Gregg]

Cogeco, a cable tv operator in many parts of Quebec, has removed WETK 33, the Vermont Public Television station in Burlington, from its channel line up. It is still running Channel 57 Mountainlakes Public Television, the PBS outlet from Plattsburgh NY.

VPT says it was not notified about the switch and is disappointed it is not reaching those viewers at this point. It is suggesting Cogeco subscribers write the management asking for WETK to return to the line up. VPT says its schedule and Mountainlakes PBS schedule are not the same. They try NOT to run the same PBS show at the same time. Some programs are exclusive to one station.

VPT says it neither asks Cogeco for a fee for carriage or offers them a fee. It's a reciprocal free deal. VPT gets more viewers who might send in contributions and Cogeco gets another channel to offer its viewers at no cost.

Videotron, the larger cable operator in Quebec, continues to offer both WETK 33 and WCFE 57 to its viewers. I always found it interesting that some Canadian cable operators offer two PBS outlets (Montreal and Vancouver, which carries the PBS outlets from both Seattle and Detroit) while in the U.S., if you live in the middle of a state, you often get only one PBS station on your cable system. I have a friend in Columbia, right in the middle of South Carolina, and Time Warner has never given him a second PBS station, even though it probably could pull in a PBS station from Georgia or North Carolina. I live in the NYC area where we get four PBS stations to choose from.


Gregg
[email protected]

 

[Bob1370]

Canadian cable companies have often made unusual choices in which American channels to carry, often not the ones with transmitters closest to the border. You expect Toronto and Hamilton to grab the Buffalo signals OTA, and they do. Some in south-central Ontario and southeastern Ontario take the Rochester stations (closest to the head-end for grabbing and distributing signals to that region, I suppose). BC gets Seattle. But a lot of the rest of Canada gets Detroit.

Again, it's got to be proximity to the head end for the cable companies, which grab the Detroit signals and uplink them to systems across central and western Canada. Anyone know for sure?

 

[azumanga]

But a lot of the rest of Canada gets Detroit.

Not quite so -- systems in Alberta carry network affiliates in Spokane, which were provided ever since the 1960s, when they were first distributed to them via microwave. In Winnipeg, it's a mish-mash of channels from Detroit, Minneapolis / St. Paul, and Grand Forks / Fargo. In Quebec, they generally offer the Burlington / Plattsburgh stations, which are picked up easily in Montreal and distributed from there. In the Maritimes, it used to be stations from Bangor and Presque Isle, though in recent years they transitioned to Boston, with only the border areas getting channels from Bangor and/or Presque Isle.

 

[mjlarochelle]

With respect to VPT, it seems Cogeco didn't learn from Rogers' experience with trying to drop WPBS Watertown in Ottawa and WQLN Erie in London several years ago. Viewers are fiercely loyal to their PBS station, especially if they are a paying member - and VPT, like WCFE, WPBS, WNED and WQLN, rely a lot on Canadian support.

I don't think Canadian cable operators quite grasp that PBS does not operate like other TV networks, with nearly identical schedules from market to market. They just see them as various PBS network feeds; I know Rogers tried to claim that WTVS, WQLN, and WNED had almost identical schedules when they attempted the changes in 2009. WTVS Detroit, WQLN Erie, and WNED Buffalo all have radically different schedules, except during childrens' daytime programming in some instances. Some, such as WPBS, even have programming targeting Canadian audiences. I also don't the cablecos grasp the loyalty people have to these stations. In Quebec in particular, there is no English-language provincial public broadcaster, unlike Ontario, Saskatchewan and B.C., so a station like VPT is a de-facto English public broadcaster in Quebec.

 

[RBW]

My parents (now deceased) lived in Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ont....followed by Niagara Falls, back in the 2000's. They had Cogeco, and when in NOTL, got all the major Buffalo afilliates, plus, Erie channels 12 WICU, & 24 WJET. PBS was WNED Buffalo. Then after a year or so, they dumped WICU, keeping only WJET... then a short time later, ch. 24 went as well. Then in the Falls, still w/Cogeco, only Buffalo affils were received, except for Ch.23 & Ch.49

 

[RBW]

P.s. to my post above...... I just remembered I think they also got "WSEE 35 from Erie for a time as well.

 

[mjlarochelle]

P.s. to my post above...... I just remembered I think they also got "WSEE 35 from Erie for a time as well.

The Erie stations, at one point, were carried throughout a large part of Southwestern Ontario, from London/St. Thomas east to Burlington - a region with a population much larger than the Erie market itself.

Aside from WQLN, I never recall any of those stations targeting Canadian viewers, unlike the Buffalo stations.