WITH 120+ STATIONS COULD ME-TV BENEFIT WITH AND EAST & WEST COAST FEED ?

[gregg75]

It seems like most of Me-TV is designed for the East coast (Eastern/Central) time. With shows
like Peter Gunn airing at 1:30AM......10:30PM Pacific, Mary Tyler Moore at 8PM and 5PM
Pacific, places like California appear to be out of sinc a bit.

I think they could better serve the Mountain/Pacific zones if they had their own feed. Places
unable to air shows like Cheers could pick up a program from the other feed. It doesn't seem
like it would be that hard to do........then the west coast could watch Mary at a more decent
7 or 8PM like everyone else does.

 

[landtuna]

Gregg, that's been the case for eons now. The Mountain time zone doesn't have the population to make a dent in viewers so we're basically ignored. The Pacific zone does have the viewers so they get their special feed - except for live events which usually begin early morning or early evening. To be fair, the Eastern time zone does pay a price when their Monday Night Football doesn't begin until late and can last past midnight.

The DVR is a good solution to this problem (except for live events which may not be nearly as interesting when time-shifted). I wouldn't trade things though since programs of interest usually begin early and end early enough that I can still enjoy the remainder of my weekend day should I choose to watch live. I've lived in every TZ except Central and I like Mountain the best.

 

[RadioFanBoy]

MeTV West does exsist. KDOC 56.3 in Los Angeles runs the West Coast feed. You need to contact whichever local station programms your MeTV affiliate, and ask why they are running the east coast feed.

 

[azumanga]

MeTV West does exsist. KDOC 56.3 in Los Angeles runs the West Coast feed. You need to contact whichever local station programms your MeTV affiliate, and ask why they are running the east coast feed.

But is there an actual western feed, or is KDOC electronically delaying the feed to match Pacific Time? KITV in Hawaii, which carries Me-TV there, electronically delays the feed so it would match with Hawaiian time.

 

[EricStein]

It's my understanding that Me-TV affiliates record the network's national feed on a server, then plays the shows back at the network's standardized times, just like the major networks. This also allows the station to insert alternate programming, in case a show is blocked by Syndex.

 

[Markxxx]

About, 46% of the nation's population live in the Eastern time zone, 30% in the Central zone; 7% in the Mountain zone, and 17% in the Pacific zone. (48 contiguous states only, source: US Census 2010)

So I don't know how difficult it is to set up a different feed or how costly, but it if wasn't cost effective, I can see why networks don't do it.

 

[tripinva]

The "This Box" or "Me Box" takes the national east feed and delays it by x number of hours to match the proper local time zone. In the event the local rights for a program aren't available, they provide an alternate satellite feed with programs they do hold national rights to which can be substituted in place of whatever airs in that time slot.

So, no, there would be only increased transponder costs and no benefits to creating a west feed on satellite.

- Trip

 

[oldiesfan6479]

In the Phoenix market, KAZT 7.2 airs MeTV at the "CT clock time," that is, for
example, Perry Mason (11:30/10:30) at 10:30 PM and The Untouchables
(12:30/11:30) at 11:30 PM.

The air times did not shift when the time change occurred on March 11 (and AZ went
from MT to PT, in effect), so tripinva and Eric's posts on how MeTV works seem accurate.

 

[Darth_vader]

Re: With 120+ stations, could ME-TV benefit from east and west coast feeds?

"But is there an actual western feed, or is KDOC electronically delaying the feed to match Pacific Time?"

There is a feed called "Me Too" on the same transponder (AMC 1 Tp. 2) as the main Me-TV feed. I'm guessing together, these must be the east and west feeds:

http://lyngsat.com/AMC-1.html

 

[tripinva]

Re: With 120+ stations, could ME-TV benefit from east and west coast feeds?

There is a feed called "Me Too" on the same transponder (AMC 1 Tp. 2) as the main Me-TV feed. I'm guessing together, these must be the east and west feeds:

As I said: "In the event the local rights for a program aren't available, they provide an alternate satellite feed with programs they do hold national rights to which can be substituted in place of whatever airs in that time slot."

And it's not called "Me Too," LyngSat has been consistently wrong about that for months now.

- Trip

 

[anotherguyTN]

I think ME TV's next step should be to make the channel available on cable and dish to areas that don't have an OTA station.

 

[EricStein]

In the Phoenix market, KAZT 7.2 airs MeTV at the "CT clock time," that is, for
example, Perry Mason (11:30/10:30) at 10:30 PM and The Untouchables
(12:30/11:30) at 11:30 PM.

The air times did not shift when the time change occurred on March 11 (and AZ went
from MT to PT, in effect), so tripinva and Eric's posts on how MeTV works seem accurate.

However, in Shelbyville...er...Tucson, KOLD 13.2 airs Me-TV programs on "Eastern Time" (an hour behind KAZT). Did they not get the memo, or is this just Tucson behavior of "we don't want to be anything like Phoenix?"

 

[sandiegoinexile]

It's my understanding that Me-TV affiliates record the network's national feed on a server, then plays the shows back at the network's standardized times, just like the major networks. This also allows the station to insert alternate programming, in case a show is blocked by Syndex.

Lowly KRET in Palm Springs and even more lowly KRCR in Redding both air MeTV "primetime" starting @8PM PT.

 

[gregg75]

So you guys are saying the stations do pretty much whatever they want, but most
start ME primetime at 8PM or 7PM local time. So the default on their website if you
don't pick a location is always Eastern???

I had no idea the stations had a delay box.......so this is learning. That would also
explain why the promos are always in Eastern/Central........which I guess is replaced
with Pacific for the west coast.

 

[sandiegoinexile]

the promos are always in Eastern/Central........which I guess is replaced with Pacific for the west coast.

Not quite. The promos always cite ET/CT (just like virtually all other networks). PT-ers have been translating ET=PT for a few decades now. But yes, even some of the rinky-dink sub-channels in markets 150+ are delaying programming for three hours.

 

[Donald G]

In Albuquerque, the ME-TV feed is stored and delayed two hours so our start times match the stated East Coast clock time. Although if you enter Albuquerque as your location on the Me-TV website, their schedule has us airing programs at the Central timezone clock time.

 

[oldiesfan6479]

Although if you enter Albuquerque as your location on the Me-TV website...

The ABQ schedule on zap2it.com appears to be as you stated, that is, ET clock time, not CT.

It shows Perry Mason (11:30/10:30) at 11:30 and The Untouchables (12:30/11:30) at 12:30.

 

[gregg75]

So wouldn't having a west coast feed solve a lot of these issues, time delays,
Pacific time promos, etc.? Seems like about 40 western affiliates would like it.

If PB&J can run on 12 stations, 40 should surely be enough for Me-TV West.

 

[dave73]

Re: With 120+ stations, could ME-TV benefit from east and west coast feeds?

"But is there an actual western feed, or is KDOC electronically delaying the feed to match Pacific Time?"

There is a feed called "Me Too" on the same transponder (AMC 1 Tp. 2) as the main Me-TV feed. I'm guessing together, these must be the east and west feeds:

http://lyngsat.com/AMC-1.html

If I'm not mistaken, the MeToo feed is actually WMEU-LD, since MeToo is only available on cable & OTA in Chicago (MeToo also simulcasted on WCIU 26.4). Unless Weigel Broadcasting decides to make MeToo nationwide as well, that's only for Chicago viewers, because they took MeTV nationwide. MeToo shows programs that can't be shown on MeTV, due to not having the national rights to the shows, including shows from the Sony library (Tribune has the national rights to that library for Antenna TV). For a Chicagoland viewer like me, I actually prefer MeToo more than MeTV, because I like the selection of programming on that channel. I really liked it better when MeTV was just in Chicago (there used to be a local Milwaukee version of MeTV, but not MeToo though), since MeTV was comedy, & MeToo was drama. Now, MeTV is nationwide, while MeToo is just Chicago (both a mix of comedy & drama).

 

[tripinva]

Re: With 120+ stations, could ME-TV benefit from east and west coast feeds?

So wouldn't having a west coast feed solve a lot of these issues, time delays,
Pacific time promos, etc.? Seems like about 40 western affiliates would like it.

And would double transponder costs (not cheap) and require running two master control setups instead of one. And really, there's no difference between the two methods except for cost. Time delay hardware is much cheaper than the recurring cost of double the transponder space, and promos are easy enough to fix if they're not already fixed.

If PB&J [sic] can run on 12 stations, 40 should surely be enough for Me-TV West.

PBJ and the other Luken networks are designed fundamentally differently from the way Me-TV is designed.

If I'm not mistaken, the MeToo feed is actually WMEU-LD,

As I stated,

"In the event the local rights for a program aren't available, they provide an alternate satellite feed with programs they do hold national rights to which can be substituted in place of whatever airs in that time slot.

And it's not called "Me Too," LyngSat has been consistently wrong about that for months now."

- Trip