I always wondered why Finger Lakes Cablevision (before TWC bought them out) and now Time Warner never put any canadian stations (A CBC or CTV affailite) on their lineup, When attending college in Buffalo a few years ago, I loved watching Hockey Night In Canada on cable there. Adelphia in Buffalo I believe had Toronto's CBC and CTV stations. I know Rochester stations (especially WUHF which is basically a superstation in Canada) are on various canadian lineups, I wish the same could be true here.
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Why No Canadian TV stations on TWC Rochester/Fingerlakes
- Thread starter ericNY
- Start date
If you've got a good rooftop antenna you can easily pick up a few of the Canadian networks across the lake. CJOH-TV-6 (CTV) and CKWS-TV-11 (CBC) are some of the stations I commonly receive.
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Mark_Giardina
Guest
ericNY said:
I've asking TW that same question for years. And now, after my cable bill has increased by close to $20.00 a month, I want to know why I have a DVR and access to 1200 channels but most of them justnetworks already featured on lower channels 3-67. What a rip-off!
Of course TW could add more Canadian TV. But apparently it's not in their best financial interests to do so. I personally would love to watch "The National." There is a network newscast that puts CBS to shame.
I've tried recently to get through to TW about this another cable-related question but I either end up being put on hold for a 1/2 hour (runs up the cell phone minutes) or I get someone from New Delhi.
dhett said:
CHEX comes in quite a bit in the summer, but it isn't always there. It could have to do with my location. I am in the Wayne County Town of Williamson. Actually, I quite often can receive up to 40 or more different over-the-air signals on any given night when conditions are favorable.
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chuckydoll
Guest
US cable systems within 50 miles of the Canadian border can carry OTA stations from Canada.
Rochester is within 50 miles but the 3 VHF locals (8, 10, 13) are a barrier to reliable OTA reception from Canada. The Finger Lakes are beyond 50 miles and thus cannot carry anything from Canada.
Rochester is within 50 miles but the 3 VHF locals (8, 10, 13) are a barrier to reliable OTA reception from Canada. The Finger Lakes are beyond 50 miles and thus cannot carry anything from Canada.
chuckydoll said:
However:
1. Some cable systems in the Boston market (such as Lowell, Massachusetts and Manchester, New Hampshire) offer CKSH, a Radio-Canada affiliate from Sherbrooke, Quebec -- and those two cities are more than 50 miles from the border.
2. Charter systems in central Michigan (such as Bay City, Midland and Mount Pleasant) carry Montreal's CBMT -- via satellite. Annd they're more than 50 miles from the border.
Carrying broadcast outlets on a "superstation" basis involves significant copyright payments, which include a percentage of profits. They are not cheap to carry, which is a big reason why you don't see many superstations any longer (that and syndicated exclusivity). There really is little demand for Canadian TV in the States, despite some quality programs on the CBC.
chuckydoll said:
I'm quite sure there is no rule limiting carraige of Canadian stations to systems within 50 miles of the border.
English-language Canadian stations carry many programs to which other stations have the U.S. rights. The U.S. rights-holders could require the cable systems to block the Canadian stations during these programs - a fairly expensive process. (FWIW the same thing happens in the other direction: Canadian cable systems are required to block U.S. stations when the U.S. station is carrying a program to which a local Canadian station has the rights.)
There are considerably fewer (but still some) such programs on CBC stations. In some border areas (Watertown NY, Grand Forks ND for two) a CBC station is the only Canadian station on the system.
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chuckydoll
Guest
Canada OTA available? It depends
The 50-mile rule is most likely recent.
If CKSH is on cable in lower New Hampshire it may have been grandfathered. A friend of mine lives in northern New Hampshire; he's close enough to the border to get CBC Montreal and TVA affiliate Tele 7 from Sherbrooke.
If CBC Montreal is on cable in central Michigan it may have been grandfathered. Port Huron and metro Detroit are within 50 miles of the border, thus they're able to carry CBC Windsor.
Time Warner in Watertown carries CBC from Kingston (CKWS-11) and CTV Ottawa (nee CJOH-13).
The 50-mile rule is most likely recent.
If CKSH is on cable in lower New Hampshire it may have been grandfathered. A friend of mine lives in northern New Hampshire; he's close enough to the border to get CBC Montreal and TVA affiliate Tele 7 from Sherbrooke.
If CBC Montreal is on cable in central Michigan it may have been grandfathered. Port Huron and metro Detroit are within 50 miles of the border, thus they're able to carry CBC Windsor.
w9wi said:
Time Warner in Watertown carries CBC from Kingston (CKWS-11) and CTV Ottawa (nee CJOH-13).
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Bob1370
Guest
T/W many years ago used to carry several Canadian stations, including SRC (French) and CFMT from Toronto and CTV from Ottawa, on its Rochester and Monroe County cable system. That ended some years ago, along with carriage of NYC stations 5, 9 and 11. Some of it had to do with desire to clear channel space for more cable-only channels that provided better revenue potential, and some of it had to do with the financial/logistical complications involved in carrying channels which duplicated a lot of the same syndicated and network content (though often time-shifted) as the locals.
This would clearly NOT be much of a consideration for carrying CBC English language programming from CBLT in Toronto, since very little of CBC's programming between 6 AM and midnight is anything but exclusive Canadian content not seen on any American network or anywhere in American syndication. And people would probably enjoy it. But there could be technical problems in importing the signal off the CN Tower, and they'd have to be shown that there's demand for solving those problems and bringing CBC programming to Rochester.
This would clearly NOT be much of a consideration for carrying CBC English language programming from CBLT in Toronto, since very little of CBC's programming between 6 AM and midnight is anything but exclusive Canadian content not seen on any American network or anywhere in American syndication. And people would probably enjoy it. But there could be technical problems in importing the signal off the CN Tower, and they'd have to be shown that there's demand for solving those problems and bringing CBC programming to Rochester.
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chuckydoll
Guest
It's all about the logistics
Presumably that is pre-Fox, pre-UPN and pre-WB.
CBLFT-25 and CFMT-47 transmit on UHF, thus they're more difficult to pick up OTA from a distance. The CTV Ottawa [CJOH] signal would have been the relay on Ch. 6 in Deseronto, which is halfway between Belleville and Kingston.
Bob1370 said:
Presumably that is pre-Fox, pre-UPN and pre-WB.
CBLFT-25 and CFMT-47 transmit on UHF, thus they're more difficult to pick up OTA from a distance. The CTV Ottawa [CJOH] signal would have been the relay on Ch. 6 in Deseronto, which is halfway between Belleville and Kingston.
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jiminCT
Guest
No such thing as a 50 mile rule...
There is no 50-mile rule. Whoever said that is making it up.
There are many systems that simply have it because they can pick it up...or there are retransmission agreements. In Quebec...the SRC, CTV, and CBC networks are available on many Vermont systems...often distributed by microwave (like the CBC in Seattle). There are SRC channels on systems in Lowell MA and in Southern Maine..because people simply want the station. There is no law prohibiting cable systems from carrying Canadian networks.
There is no 50-mile rule. Whoever said that is making it up.
There are many systems that simply have it because they can pick it up...or there are retransmission agreements. In Quebec...the SRC, CTV, and CBC networks are available on many Vermont systems...often distributed by microwave (like the CBC in Seattle). There are SRC channels on systems in Lowell MA and in Southern Maine..because people simply want the station. There is no law prohibiting cable systems from carrying Canadian networks.
Re: Canada OTA available? It depends
I can attest to the fact that CKSH is on Comcast systems in at least Nashua, Manchester, and Dover, NH (and probably others) - as well as Sanford, Saco and Lewiston, ME. Supposedly it's offered on channel 98 in Salem, MA too. All are far more than 50 miles from the border and all have decent sized French Canadian populations which are served by carriage of the station.
chuckydoll said:
I can attest to the fact that CKSH is on Comcast systems in at least Nashua, Manchester, and Dover, NH (and probably others) - as well as Sanford, Saco and Lewiston, ME. Supposedly it's offered on channel 98 in Salem, MA too. All are far more than 50 miles from the border and all have decent sized French Canadian populations which are served by carriage of the station.
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