WLVT channel 39 off DirecTV

[bierkenstock]

As of this morning, Lehigh Valley Public Television, WLVT channel 39, is no longer carried by DirecTV (WHYY-TV12, WYBE 35, WNJS-TV23 are still carried). The on-screen message says DirecTV no longer has the rights to this station.

What's going on? Why was channel 39 dropped?
Did WLVT try to get DirecTV to pay for carriage?
Did WHYY-TV force 39 off DirecTV?
Did WLVT 39 decide to quit DirecTV? Apparently they are not on Dish TV either. Are satellite users not pledging and channel 39 decided not to keep up the microwave link for the satellite providers?

This s*cks. WLVT re-boardcasts PBS shows during the overnight hours (Channel 12 does their idiotic distance learning educational programs nobody watches). As a TiVo user, I appreciate having an additional opportunity to record PBS programs (especially since channel 12 took away the national PBS channel from satellite users a couple of years ago).

Channel 39 also carries programs channel 12 "in its wisdom" pre-empts locally. But the guy who runs channel 12 makes close to half a million each year so he must know what he's doing, right?

 

[Bill_W]

> As of this morning, Lehigh Valley Public Television, WLVT
> channel 39, is no longer carried by DirecTV (WHYY-TV12, WYBE
> 35, WNJS-TV23 are still carried). The on-screen message
> says DirecTV no longer has the rights to this station.
>
> What's going on? Why was channel 39 dropped?
>
Wow. My daughter watches Sesame Street on channel 39 at 8 in the morning before I take her to daycare. It's not on until 9:30 on NJN or 10am on channel 12. We don't have channel 39 on Comcast out of Cherry Hill.

 

[timbo]

It's January 3rd

And this question still isn't answered. Am I to believe noone has an answer? There are a total of 3 local stations off in the Philadelphia market.

 

[Bill_W]

Re: It's January 3rd

> And this question still isn't answered. Am I to believe
> noone has an answer? There are a total of 3 local stations
> off in the Philadelphia market.
>
Which 3? Channel 48 was taken off when it started simulcasting TBN. That's 1. The rest are there. Even WMCN is there. Are you talking about Channel 40 in wildwood?

 

[pab]

Re: It's January 3rd

> > And this question still isn't answered. Am I to believe
> > noone has an answer? There are a total of 3 local stations
>
> > off in the Philadelphia market.
> >
> Which 3? Channel 48 was taken off when it started
> simulcasting TBN. That's 1. The rest are there. Even WMCN
> is there. Are you talking about Channel 40 in wildwood?

40 was never on the bird; Howard Green was too cheap to run coax to the uplink. Don't know if Access1 has any plans to rectify that.

Funny thing, though, is there is still a reserved channel spot for "PH40" on the channel list, along with full schedule data.
<P ID="signature">______________
The Pab Sungenis Project - http://www.lowbudgetradio.com</P>

 

[timbo]

Re: It's January 3rd

> > And this question still isn't answered. Am I to believe
> > noone has an answer? There are a total of 3 local stations
>
> > off in the Philadelphia market.
> >
> Which 3? Channel 48 was taken off when it started
> simulcasting TBN. That's 1. The rest are there. Even WMCN
> is there. Are you talking about Channel 40 in wildwood?
>
Im missing 39 WLVT,53 WMCN, and 62 WWSI. Could it be just parts of the markrt are losing these channels? (I'm in the Lehigh valley) although 39 is out of Bethlehem. (Just thinking out loud)

 

[r566]

Re: It's January 3rd

> > > And this question still isn't answered. Am I to believe
> > > noone has an answer? There are a total of 3 local
> stations
> >
> > > off in the Philadelphia market.
> > >
> > Which 3? Channel 48 was taken off when it started
> > simulcasting TBN. That's 1. The rest are there. Even
> WMCN
> > is there. Are you talking about Channel 40 in wildwood?
> >
> Im missing 39 WLVT,53 WMCN, and 62 WWSI. Could it be just
> parts of the markrt are losing these channels? (I'm in the
> Lehigh valley) although 39 is out of Bethlehem. (Just
> thinking out loud)
>

Apparently, the new must-carry election cycle took into effect, and these stations might not have elected carriage properly. It happened throughout the market.

DirecTV should restore WLVT 39 to the lineup, if they haven't done so already. It's a decent channel in the lineup.

DirecTV has added low powered stations, where must-carry doesn't apply, to lineups in effort to draw customers, so WLVT should be regarded as a worthy service, though not required, in that same way.

By no way can WLVT 39 ask for a retrans fee, so it's not a retrans issue.

Telemundo is available as a national feed, though I believe it is only in the Spanish packages. Regardless, DirecTV probably considers WLVT 39 duplicative to WHYY 12, and WWSI's programming can be found on Telemundo, and WMCN's programming is worthless. There was also a ruling basically saying that digital only stations aren't guaranteed must-carry on the satellite providers. Dish Net. had dropped WMCN-DT sometime ago, and FCC sided with Dish over WMCN in the drop.

 

[Bill_W]

Re: It's January 3rd

> > > And this question still isn't answered. Am I to believe
> > > noone has an answer? There are a total of 3 local
> stations
> >
> > > off in the Philadelphia market.
> > >
> > Which 3? Channel 48 was taken off when it started
> > simulcasting TBN. That's 1. The rest are there. Even
> WMCN
> > is there. Are you talking about Channel 40 in wildwood?
> >
> Im missing 39 WLVT,53 WMCN, and 62 WWSI. Could it be just
> parts of the markrt are losing these channels? (I'm in the
> Lehigh valley) although 39 is out of Bethlehem. (Just
> thinking out loud)
>
Sorry. You're right. All 3 are gone. I'm in Camden County, NJ and don't get 39 on Comcast. It's the only local channel I watched on DirecTv. Just in the habbit of wtching the rest of the locals on Comcast (and in HD). I do like having the local NYC digital channels but, I guess that will be taken away soon now the the philly D-TV stations will be on soon. I kept local channels just to get it so that my daughter could watch Sesame Street earlier in the day and to keep the NYC D-TV.

 

[Nertz]

Re: It's January 3rd

> And this question still isn't answered. Am I to believe
> noone has an answer? There are a total of 3 local stations
> off in the Philadelphia market.

Did you ever think of calling DirecTV or the stations that are off?
Would that be too damn obvious for you do do?

 

[timbo]

Re: It's January 3rd

> > And this question still isn't answered. Am I to believe
> > noone has an answer? There are a total of 3 local stations
>
> > off in the Philadelphia market.
>
> Did you ever think of calling DirecTV or the stations that
> are off?
> Would that be too damn obvious for you do do?
>
I thought about that but quite frankly, It's not eating at me that much. the only one i really remotely cared about was 39. I was just merely curious thats all. Now on the other hand, if channels such as CBS3, 6ABC, and NBC10 were gone,I'd be on the phone immediately.

 

[bierkenstock]

Did you ever think of calling...?

A strange comment from someone who posts questions himself which seemingly could have been answered with a little homework.

However, the answer is yes.

I emailed (twice) and called channel 39 (twice). They did not respond to my emails. When I have called, all I got was voice mail boxes. My calls have not been returned either.

DirecTV's customer service line says they can not comment on carriage issues.

However, I have noticed that Comcast is one of WLVT's corporate underwriters. Comcast has used a loophole in the law to keep their Philadelphia sports channel off satellite (something they have not been able to get away with in other markets). I would not be surprised if Comcast, a company with a history of predatory competition, were to use their leverage from underwriting to "encourage" a public TV station not to renew their must-carry request. Media companies often persue exclusivity for their own short-term gain and at the expense of the customer. Comcast is not about doing that but I sort of thought a public television station would be.



>
> Did you ever think of calling DirecTV or the stations that
> are off?
> Would that be too damn obvious for you do do?
>

 

[r566]

Re: Did you ever think of calling...?

> A strange comment from someone who posts questions himself
> which seemingly could have been answered with a little
> homework.
>
> However, the answer is yes.
>
> I emailed (twice) and called channel 39 (twice). They did
> not respond to my emails. When I have called, all I got was
> voice mail boxes. My calls have not been returned either.
>
> DirecTV's customer service line says they can not comment on
> carriage issues.
>
> However, I have noticed that Comcast is one of WLVT's
> corporate underwriters. Comcast has used a loophole in the
> law to keep their Philadelphia sports channel off satellite
> (something they have not been able to get away with in other
> markets). I would not be surprised if Comcast, a company
> with a history of predatory competition, were to use their
> leverage from underwriting to "encourage" a public TV
> station not to renew their must-carry request. Media
> companies often persue exclusivity for their own short-term
> gain and at the expense of the customer. Comcast is not
> about doing that but I sort of thought a public television
> station would be.
>
>
>

That's not what happened. Comcast could care less about a mustcarry TV signal from Allentown/Bethlehem and its DirecTV coverage.

DirecTV dropped many TV signals, including WMBC in New York.

DirecTV dropped the WLVT, as they felt it was duplicative to WHYY. WMCN was considered meaningless, and WWSI was considered duplicative to the national Telemundo signal in their Spanish package.

If WLVT didn't submit their mustcarry submittal to DirecTV on time, WLVT loses. Or, DirecTV could have used the duplicative to WHYY card.

Unfortunately, DirecTV is disserving the Phila. area subscribers. WLVT had some value in the locals package, and an agreement for extension could have been made.

WTF, are they offering the 4 Philly HD signals, when one can get all the digital signals over the air, and far more on Comcast. WLVT was the channel hard to receive(over the air); it was nice DirecTV had it.

DirecTV doesn't seem quality oriented. It's a just a cheaper service, when bundled with Verizon, than Comcast.

> >
> > Did you ever think of calling DirecTV or the stations that
>
> > are off?
> > Would that be too damn obvious for you do do?
> >
>

 

[HomerJay]

Re: Did you ever think of calling...?

> A strange comment from someone who posts questions himself
> which seemingly could have been answered with a little
> homework.
>
> However, the answer is yes.

>
> Comcast has used a loophole in the
> law to keep their Philadelphia sports channel off satellite
> (something they have not been able to get away with in other
> markets).

That's fair competition. DirecTV is hardly the poor victim in the sports department--they have the exclusive rights to Sunday Ticket, and don't feel there's an issue of fair play involved in that contract. So they don't have one regional sports network, but they do have the NFL package? Not a very unbalanced playing field there.

The law in question clearly states that the exclusivity law applies to networks delivered via satellite. The regional sports networks elsewhere are delivered via satellite, but in taking over the old Prism distribution network, SportsNet inherited a microwave system. Cast my vote for freedom and capitalism--there's no reason a private company should be forced to change a distribution system, at their expense, for the sole purpose of making sure the competition can have it. If they install a satellite distribution system, obviously the law kicks in.