WJAR and COX strike deal

[Kenny Atkinson]

Don't worry Cox cable people.Frank Colletta,Kathie Lee Gifford and Mary Tyler Moore aren't going anywhere.

How long until a cable company calls a TV stations bluff and takes a channel off the line-up completely for an extended period of time and or puts another affiliate on the line up aka add WHDH.I'm surprised they dont carry Boston affiliates to use as leverage.
TERMS of the agreement not being made public.Which is B.S.Information like that should be in the public file

 

[someplacesomewhere]

How long until a cable company calls a TV stations bluff and takes a channel off the line-up completely for an extended period of time and or puts another affiliate on the line up aka add WHDH.I'm surprised they dont carry Boston affiliates to use as leverage.
TERMS of the agreement not being made public.Which is B.S.Information like that should be in the public file

When Dish and Linn were fighting, I was told it's against the law for them to put another affiliate on. I'm fairly certain that's wrong, but that was how they were operating.

 

[Skynet74]

Oh they struck a deal on the very last day before the channel would be pulled? Gee. WHAT A SURPRISE!

I predicted that would happen last night and so did everybody else. There is something incredibly freeing when you can just use your own antenna to pull signals directly out of the air. The power is in your hands and you don't get caught in the middle of this negotiation nonsense.

If I were a cable station, I would pull such hardball tactics and tell the broadcasters GOODBYE. We'll be replacing you with cheaper programming and you will not be allowed back on our lineup. End Of Story. Somebody has to make a stand against these greedy bastards. Then when customers complained about WJAR being removed, I would simply tell them that it's all the same programming they can find on the web or even on the WJAR website since the channel streams all their newscasts Live. Then with a regular antenna you can still see the channel anyway.

Broascasters should thank their lucky stars that I don't run a cable station. They sure would not be able to back me in a corner. I would just say goodbye. Customers would adjust and everything would be just fine.

 

[bmf316nhl]

Don't worry Cox cable people.Frank Colletta,Kathie Lee Gifford and Mary Tyler Moore aren't going anywhere.

How long until a cable company calls a TV stations bluff and takes a channel off the line-up completely for an extended period of time and or puts another affiliate on the line up aka add WHDH.I'm surprised they dont carry Boston affiliates to use as leverage.
TERMS of the agreement not being made public.Which is B.S.Information like that should be in the public file

This

Every Boston affiliate (except FOX 25) has "significantly viewed" status in all of RI except South County. This means that cox can legally carry these stations and the without any push-back from the Providence stations.

 

[w9wi]

Every Boston affiliate (except FOX 25) has "significantly viewed" status in all of RI except South County. This means that cox can legally carry these stations and the without any push-back from the Providence stations.

Legally, unless the Boston stations deny Cox permission to carry them in RI.

 

[FRM-Yankey]

Don't worry Cox cable people.Frank Colletta,Kathie Lee Gifford and Mary Tyler Moore aren't going anywhere.

How long until a cable company calls a TV stations bluff and takes a channel off the line-up completely for an extended period of time and or puts another affiliate on the line up aka add WHDH.I'm surprised they dont carry Boston affiliates to use as leverage.
TERMS of the agreement not being made public.Which is B.S.Information like that should be in the public file

Cox did the same thing to WSLS-TV (NBC)in Roanoke, but again a last day surprise when they agreed to carry. How about that?

 

[bmf316nhl]

Every Boston affiliate (except FOX 25) has "significantly viewed" status in all of RI except South County. This means that cox can legally carry these stations and the without any push-back from the Providence stations.

Legally, unless the Boston stations deny Cox permission to carry them in RI.

Why would the do that? Wouldn't the Boston channels want to be in more homes?

 

[qunewsguy]

Every Boston affiliate (except FOX 25) has "significantly viewed" status in all of RI except South County. This means that cox can legally carry these stations and the without any push-back from the Providence stations.

Legally, unless the Boston stations deny Cox permission to carry them in RI.

Why would the do that? Wouldn't the Boston channels want to be in more homes?

Not necessarily. If you're pitching to a North Shore advertiser, they're not gonna care that your station's available on the Rhode Island shore.

 

[bmf316nhl]

Every Boston affiliate (except FOX 25) has "significantly viewed" status in all of RI except South County. This means that cox can legally carry these stations and the without any push-back from the Providence stations.

Legally, unless the Boston stations deny Cox permission to carry them in RI.

Why would the do that? Wouldn't the Boston channels want to be in more homes?

Not necessarily. If you're pitching to a North Shore advertiser, they're not gonna care that your station's available on the Rhode Island shore.

True, but an advertiser on the Norwood Automile, or in the Bellingham area (or other towns on the northern RI Border which are in the Boston DMA) would care

 

[Markxxx]

Your ad rates are based on ratings. If you pull in viewers from outside your DMA those viewers aren't counted. And that is part of the problem.

I'll give you an example (using made up numbers)

Let's say there is cable in RI that has 100,000 viewers. It gets both ABC Providence and ABC Boston.

Now let's say 20,00 of those RI people are watching ABC Boston. Since they don't live in the Boston DMA, it doesn't increase ABC Boston's ratings, as they don't count.

But what it means is 20,000 LESS people are not watching ABC Providence. So this lowers ABC Providence's ratings.

So there is no incentive for ABC Boston to reach beyond it's DMA.

As for a cable company standing up to a TV Station? Sound like a good idea. But think about it.

If the cable company did it to one OTA station, the other OTA stations, are going to think, "If they'd do it to them, they'd do it to us." If you're gonna do it to a small station, but if the OTA networks ban together, you have a huge problem. Especially since they own cable channels.

ABC for instance, isn't going to like losing viewers in a top ten market like Boston. Whether or not they own the station. They are going to put some push on the cable company by threatening to take ESPN and other cable nets off.

This is especially true now that the OTA stations pass on some of the carriage fee income on to the networks.

 

[sonicdoommario]

So, as a resident of Bristol County, MA, which is in the Providence DMA...

I watch the NBA Finals every year, which are broadcast on ABC. I watch them on WCVB instead of WLNE. Since my rating doesn't count towards Boston, being outside their DMA, am I considered by both Providence and Boston as not being a viewer of The Finals, since my rating is going to neither station (as I'm watching Boston-based WCVB, which is not in my DMA, as opposed to Providence-based WLNE)? Is the only person that will acknowledge my viewership is Comcast, as they would be able to see how many people were watching each channel in Bristol County?

Last year, when the Bruins were in the Stanley Cup Finals, most of their games were broadcast on NBC. We watched them on WHDH, rather than WJAR. The difference between sound quality between the two stations could not have been anymore stark. We had surround sound enabled, and some commercials on WJAR had no audio when we had surround sound turned on. Those same commercials, when seen on WHDH, had sound, with surround sound enabled. Plus, the sound quality was much better on WHDH ingame than on WJAR. You had to crank up the volume to hear the announcers on WJAR. Not sure if their sound technology is updated, but it makes a big difference. So again, as we were watching on WHDH (not in our DMA), as opposed to WJAR, were we technically considered a non-viewer of the Stanley Cup Finals to both WJAR and WHDH?

The only Providence affiliate I'm forced to watch is WNAC, as WFXT is blacked out here during network programming. They don't have significantly viewed status here (the big 3 in Boston do), so without an antenna, we're forced into WNAC.

 

[DTV-Chief]

So, as a resident of Bristol County, MA, which is in the Providence DMA...

I watch the NBA Finals every year, which are broadcast on ABC. I watch them on WCVB instead of WLNE. Since my rating doesn't count towards Boston, being outside their DMA, am I considered by both Providence and Boston as not being a viewer of The Finals, since my rating is going to neither station (as I'm watching Boston-based WCVB, which is not in my DMA, as opposed to Providence-based WLNE)? Is the only person that will acknowledge my viewership is Comcast, as they would be able to see how many people were watching each channel in Bristol County?

Last year, when the Bruins were in the Stanley Cup Finals, most of their games were broadcast on NBC. We watched them on WHDH, rather than WJAR. The difference between sound quality between the two stations could not have been anymore stark. We had surround sound enabled, and some commercials on WJAR had no audio when we had surround sound turned on. Those same commercials, when seen on WHDH, had sound, with surround sound enabled. Plus, the sound quality was much better on WHDH ingame than on WJAR. You had to crank up the volume to hear the announcers on WJAR. Not sure if their sound technology is updated, but it makes a big difference. So again, as we were watching on WHDH (not in our DMA), as opposed to WJAR, were we technically considered a non-viewer of the Stanley Cup Finals to both WJAR and WHDH?

The only Providence affiliate I'm forced to watch is WNAC, as WFXT is blacked out here during network programming. They don't have significantly viewed status here (the big 3 in Boston do), so without an antenna, we're forced into WNAC.

The ratings for viewers who watch NBC programming on out-of-market WNDU in Laporte County Indiana get attributed to WMAQ, the NBC station 'officially' serving that county. So, the eyeballs watching NBC get counted regardless of the station being viewed.

 

[bmf316nhl]

So, as a resident of Bristol County, MA, which is in the Providence DMA...

I watch the NBA Finals every year, which are broadcast on ABC. I watch them on WCVB instead of WLNE. Since my rating doesn't count towards Boston, being outside their DMA, am I considered by both Providence and Boston as not being a viewer of The Finals, since my rating is going to neither station (as I'm watching Boston-based WCVB, which is not in my DMA, as opposed to Providence-based WLNE)? Is the only person that will acknowledge my viewership is Comcast, as they would be able to see how many people were watching each channel in Bristol County?

Last year, when the Bruins were in the Stanley Cup Finals, most of their games were broadcast on NBC. We watched them on WHDH, rather than WJAR. The difference between sound quality between the two stations could not have been anymore stark. We had surround sound enabled, and some commercials on WJAR had no audio when we had surround sound turned on. Those same commercials, when seen on WHDH, had sound, with surround sound enabled. Plus, the sound quality was much better on WHDH ingame than on WJAR. You had to crank up the volume to hear the announcers on WJAR. Not sure if their sound technology is updated, but it makes a big difference. So again, as we were watching on WHDH (not in our DMA), as opposed to WJAR, were we technically considered a non-viewer of the Stanley Cup Finals to both WJAR and WHDH?

The only Providence affiliate I'm forced to watch is WNAC, as WFXT is blacked out here during network programming. They don't have significantly viewed status here (the big 3 in Boston do), so without an antenna, we're forced into WNAC.

You bring up an interesting point. Last year, the Bruins-Canucks game 7 pulled a 43 rating in Boston and a 25 rating in Providence. I'm sure that Providence number was boosted by Bristol County viewers watching on WHDH.

 

[Joseph_Gallant]

BMF16NHL:

Don't forget that Boston's pro teams do have a substantial following across all of New England (with the exception of southwestern Connecticut).

 

[bmf316nhl]

BMF16NHL:

Don't forget that Boston's pro teams do have a substantial following across all of New England (with the exception of southwestern Connecticut).

You're right...but if you look at the rating in the rest of New England, they were in the high single digits...nowhere near the 25 that Providence pulled in.

Hartford pulled an 8.7

None of the other New England markets were in the top ten for that game.

 

[taylorjsdad]

Don't worry Cox cable people.Frank Colletta,Kathie Lee Gifford and Mary Tyler Moore aren't going anywhere.

How long until a cable company calls a TV stations bluff and takes a channel off the line-up completely for an extended period of time and or puts another affiliate on the line up aka add WHDH.I'm surprised they dont carry Boston affiliates to use as leverage.
TERMS of the agreement not being made public.Which is B.S.Information like that should be in the public file

Cox did the same thing to WSLS-TV (NBC)in Roanoke, but again a last day surprise when they agreed to carry. How about that?

It would be that since WJAR and WSLS-TV are both owned by Media General they were more-than-likely under the same agreement with Cox.