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WLVI Removed From Comcast/Providence Lineup

I'm in Rhode Island and today I have even more appreciation for my indoor antenna which allows me to receive WLVI crystal clear. The cable companies can go blow me.
 
So the only Boston TV stations on cable in the Providence area are PBS WGBH 2 and Independent WSBK 38?

You'd think the rule would apply that if you can get the station with rabbit ears, the local cable company should provide it, although maybe on an upper channel, with local Providence stations all within cable channels 2 through the teens.

Gregg
[email protected]
 
We get WGBH, and WGBX from Boston on COX.
That's all.
 
You really get jipped down here if you are looking for Boston channels. That is one reason I dropped my cable more than a year ago. Cox only provides a couple of PBS stations from Boston. But with my own antenna system I now get them all. There are also some websites that actually stream the cable Networks too. So I still get CNN, MSNBC, TBS, The Weather Channel and much more all streamed in via a cable from a laptop in my living room that connects to my Television. In the old days we were really a slave to the cable companies. But thanks to new technology that isn't the case anymore. Between raising rates and taking away channels, the Cable companies are their own worst enemy. They can all go suck an egg. They arn't allowed in my home anymore.
 
Gregg said:
You'd think the rule would apply that if you can get the station with rabbit ears, the local cable company should provide it, although maybe on an upper channel, with local Providence stations all within cable channels 2 through the teens.
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I share your sentiment, Gregg; however, "syndicated exclusivity" and "must carry" do not make good bedfellows, apparently.
 
DToTheJ said:
Gregg said:
You'd think the rule would apply that if you can get the station with rabbit ears, the local cable company should provide it, although maybe on an upper channel, with local Providence stations all within cable channels 2 through the teens.
Click to expand...

I share your sentiment, Gregg; however, "syndicated exclusivity" and "must carry" do not make good bedfellows, apparently.
Click to expand...

Personally, I rue the day when the syndex ruling was approved. Yeah, yeah, those of you who sympathize with the business side will disagree with me, but somehow the front offices made plenty of money when there was no syndex rule. I totally agree with Gregg: if you can get the station with an antenna, it should be offered on cable. Of course, there will always be a limit to that (i.e. a few houses on the fringe of a service area shouldn't require coverage of a station over the entire system); but most of Rhode Island is a clear case where Boston TV stations are quite receivable and historically enjoyed significant viewership in RI until a decade or so ago when Cox dumped them all.

That state is a poster child for what happens when you decide to carve up TV markets in the same way as traveling salesmen would carve up their turf. Any worse and someone from WJAR or WPRI will come over the Skynet's house with a baseball bat to ensure that he isn't obtaining 'content' from out of market stations!! ;D
 
BRNout said:
That state is a poster child for what happens when you decide to carve up TV markets in the same way as traveling salesmen would carve up their turf. Any worse and someone from WJAR or WPRI will come over the Skynet's house with a baseball bat to ensure that he isn't obtaining 'content' from out of market stations!! ;D
Click to expand...

LOL.... I'm sure someone is making similar plans at this very moment. hahaha. I'm watching Letterman on WBZ right now. At 11PM I watched WPVI ABC6 News from Philly thanks to their Live stream. A good deal of the time I listen to WINS radio from New York which I'm able to receive on my GE Super Radio 24 hours a day. I also listen to Satellite radio every morning.

Local stations have their work cut out for them if they want to stop me from receiving out of market broadcasts. That's pretty much all I tune in. They'll need to build some kind of signal stopping shield around my house and then cut all my telephone wires to ruin my ability to stream. Then they'll have to build some rockets to shoot the Sirius/XM Satelllites out of the sky.

Good luck with all that. ;D
 
Local stations have their work cut out for them if they want to stop me from receiving out of market broadcasts. That's pretty much all I tune in. They'll need to build some kind of signal stopping shield around my house and then cut all my telephone wires to ruin my ability to stream. Then they'll have to build some rockets to shoot the Sirius/XM Satelllites out of the sky.
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WOW-- you sure enjoy "stickin' it to the locals"! Letterman can't be any more enjoyable on BZ as he is on WJAR! I was going to say that you seem to get the same satisfaction from watching any BUT the locals... the same way I did in the 70's when I first discovered dx'ing. I lived near Lake Ontario and would get a thrill watching All in the Family from Cleveland, instead of on my local Buffalo afilliate.

But with the whole local vs. out of town thing... you definately take it to the next level. I'm in eastern NY now, and I'm not sure how you'd survive here. At least in eastern New England you're lucky. (I know cause I used to live in southern Maine) You guys have choices with antennas, since there are other markets within range. We have NOTHING here BUT the locals. Cable ONLY gets locals, and that's all you'd get with an antenna too! NYC is too far. Syracuse is too far. Springfield is too far. Montreal/Plattsburgh is too far. Get the picture ???

So, I guess you'll NEVER move either!!
 
Here is the deal with me regarding LOCALS. I live in a market where not one single News station broadcasts in HD. I find that rather annoying. However every single Boston affiliate does broadcast in HD. So for whatever warped kind of reasoning I have, I would rather watch an out of town Newscast in HD instead of watching a SD local newscast. I catch my local news on the web anyway. So I'm not missing anything.

Now.... regarding Network programming. Here's the deal. My local affiliates have some weird signal processing/compression issues going on. During any show with a studio audience such as Letterman or The Price Is Right, my local CBS affiliate sounds like the audience is in a tin can. As soon as I switch to WBZ it's crystal clear. My local ABC affiliate suffers from a warbled kind of a sound which is especially evident in their newscasts. My local NBC affiliate can't work out a smooth transition between the national HD feed and the local signal. When they transition from one into another there is a giant pop noise. This happens each and every time. So it's just easier and more enjoyable to watch the Boston stations who don't have these issues.

But..... I do enjoy having a choice. I'm not a big fan of stations or cable companies trying to control what I watch in my own home. So by watching out of town stations I guess I do feel a certain level of satisfaction as well.
 
Here's generally what I watch for network:

FOX: WFXT - No subchannel, so better picture quality

CBS: Either is fine

NBC: WJAR - They always switch to network right on time, WHDH sometimes switches way too late and it cuts off the programming. The only exception to this is when a local ticker is up. WJAR will downconvert network to 480i.

ABC: WLNE - The ABC 720p feed stays 720p. WCVB ruins it by upconverting to 1080i.

CW: I never watch this, but either is good with me.
 
Re: COX in Rhode Island carries WLVI-56 One hour a day....

DToTheJ said:
This, at the request of Providence CW affiliate WLWC, which asked the FCC to enforce non-duplication rights against Boston's CW affiliate.

Full story:
http://www.rbr.com/tv-cable/23914.html
Click to expand...


This is for the MAssachusettes area than anything.The only time COX airs WLVI is during thier local news as a public service to Rhode Islanders which now comes from WHDH 1 hour a night.At one time they aired a morning newscast. Not sure if thats even on now. I cant speak for Fios.Does Fios in Rhode Island carry any Boston stations besides PBS?
 
Why doesn't COX air more Boston News as a public service? One hour a night of WLVI News seems like a jip. COX used to carry WOR and WPIX from New York. It was great. Now the cable landscape has changed. It's to bad. Thank God for the internet. Many stations now stream their newscasts. So what you can can no longer get from the cable company, you can now get online.
 
Skynet74 said:
Why doesn't COX air more Boston News as a public service? One hour a night of WLVI News seems like a jip. COX used to carry WOR and WPIX from New York. It was great. Now the cable landscape has changed. It's to bad. Thank God for the internet. Many stations now stream their newscasts. So what you can can no longer get from the cable company, you can now get online.
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I dont understand why The RI News channel doesnt air WLVI/WHDH news at ten.By ten the 6:00 report is stale anyway.Why dont they just move it to channel five.

Or.....Put WSBK back on the line-up now that they are an indy.They carry a 10 o'clock newscast.


Even Better one.....

Simulcast WSBK's newscasts on WLWC (28). They are all out of the same building....
 
kenwood101 said:
Or.....Put WSBK back on the line-up now that they are an indy.They carry a 10 o'clock newscast.
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That would be nice, but also very difficult to pull off at this point. For one thing, it's a heck of a lot easier to keep an out of market channel on a cable system's lineup than it is to add one. In this case, the 'locals' (like WLWC) would claim syndex rights; thus resulting in much of WSBK's schedule being blacked out in the market. And, there are no financial sweeties in it for a system like COX to add a station like WSBK.

So, as much as I think that such an addition would be great for COX subscribers in Rhode Island, it will be nearly impossible to pull off at this point. Sadly, when CBS decided to brand WSBK as a 'UPN' affiliate, they pretty much lost superstation status. Now that it's back as an indie, there's no way to get back on all those systems that dropped it during the late 90s and early 00s (including tons of them in CT, upstate NY, ME, VT, etc.).

But it is still available in much of Canada. Just goes to show you how 'consumer friendly' that cable reform act of 1996 was. More shopping channels, more infomercials, fewer (or no) distant channels, and logarithmic increases in monthly cable bills since then. Thanks John McCain, Bill Clinton and company!
 
BRNout said:
Sadly, when CBS decided to brand WSBK as a 'UPN' affiliate, they pretty much lost superstation status. Now that it's back as an indie, there's no way to get back on all those systems that dropped it during the late 90s and early 00s (including tons of them in CT, upstate NY, ME, VT, etc.).But it is still available in much of Canada...
Click to expand...

So is the independent station in Atlanta, formerly known as WTBS and now going by the name of "Peachtree TV" - for what it's worth, anyway...

(I read that a local TV network in Canada has signed a deal to carry Conan's TBS show on broadcast TV there. Good for them.)
 
DToTheJ said:
So is the independent station in Atlanta, formerly known as WTBS and now going by the name of "Peachtree TV" - for what it's worth, anyway...
Click to expand...

From what I understand, "Peachtree" is the REAL Ch. 17 "TBS" is the cable-only broadcast.
 
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