Just saw WMFP flash across the screen during the last commercial break during the Dick Van Dyke Show: "Coming Oct. 1st, Plum TV, www.plumtv.com" Looks like a disappointment. No more classic TV on 62.1.
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WMFP-TV ch. 62 Oct. 1st
- Thread starter MikeyBos
- Start date
MikeyBos said:
They are picking THIS up rather than move RTV back to 62.1?
They are not even trying to get cable coverage for 62.2! Hearst had to do little for Comcast to pick up WCVB 5.2!
They must have picked the network that would allow them the most infomercials!
I JUST DON'T GET IT?!
mysticnitekatt said:
Given the programs, my suspicion is Plum TV is a brokered/infomercial network, in and of itself!
MCarney said:
Nope, network/satellite problems: WMUR:9.2 (“MeTV New Hampshire”) has
slide
Whoops.
They just came back on (both 9.2 and 62.1) as I sent this! :
They just came back on (both 9.2 and 62.1) as I sent this! :
"They are picking THIS up rather than move RTV back to 62.1?"
Maybe RTV is not making them any money and they are waiting for the contract to run out.
"They are not even trying to get cable coverage for 62.2! Hearst had to do little for Comcast to pick up WCVB 5.2!"
How do you know how much effort WCVB did getting Comcast to carry them? Are any others cable systems doing the same? These deals take months to get right and make the lawyers on both sides happy.
"They must have picked the network that would allow them the most infomercials!"
Why wouldn't they it is a business after all.
"I JUST DON'T GET IT?!"
And you never will....
Maybe RTV is not making them any money and they are waiting for the contract to run out.
"They are not even trying to get cable coverage for 62.2! Hearst had to do little for Comcast to pick up WCVB 5.2!"
How do you know how much effort WCVB did getting Comcast to carry them? Are any others cable systems doing the same? These deals take months to get right and make the lawyers on both sides happy.
"They must have picked the network that would allow them the most infomercials!"
Why wouldn't they it is a business after all.
"I JUST DON'T GET IT?!"
And you never will....
RogerWilco said:
Maybe RTV is not making them any money and they are waiting for the contract to run out. [/quote]
We don't know that either way, and again, they can't get more viewers if they don't get cable coverage - and we know they do little to promote either 62.1 or 62.2.
RTV is no longer offering customized feeds, so that may also be a factor not to switch back to 62.1 - it would disrupt the infomercial pattern they have. RTV feeds out national infomercials at night,BTW, and only gives locals an hour each night.
It's only been a couple-three months since Hearst announced MeTV moving to 5.2 and even allowing time before that to start working at getting clearing the channel, they have everything in place rather quickly. There's a chance pre-existing contracts call for a pick-up when/if they ad sub-channels.
If you pick up a network with limited appeal, then people won't watch the channel, thus no eyes on the ads and infomercials.
I'm just constantly bewildered in NRJ's business plans for their stations - sub=channels that get no cable coverage, no local sales staff to sell local ad time, - I do understand the business model with a dependence on infomercial time for revenue, but again - they have strong full-power stations in Boston and NYC DMA which they are running them on auto-pilot I don't know of any other full-power operator who runs their channels like this.
I guess it works for them while they wait for the Spectrum auctions to happen.
tripinva said:
Read it in an article a few months back - guess they haven't done that,then?
If there's no restriction on how much infomercial time they can program themselves that even adds to the perplexity of why they didn't move RTV back over to 62.1. "PlumTV" must have given them a nice deal to pick them up.
Recent article about NRJ's latest station purchase - WGCB Harrisburg - and another mention of the plan to sell their stations in the auctions. No sources mentioned here though:
http://www.tvnewscheck.com/article/62316/nrj-tv-snags-wgcb-harrisburg-for-9m
channel99 said:
I don't think a trade site like them would say something if it wasn't fact.
Retro TV should have been on 62.1 and Plum TV on 62.2.
And here is the real future of WMFP - announced today:
FCC Unanimously Approves TV Band Incentive Auction NPRM
http://www.tvtechnology.com/article/fcc-unanimously-approves-tv-band-incentive-auction-nprm/215700
FCC Unanimously Approves TV Band Incentive Auction NPRM
http://www.tvtechnology.com/article/fcc-unanimously-approves-tv-band-incentive-auction-nprm/215700
channel99 said:
Considering Boston has two duopolies - CBS's 4 & 38 and Sunbeam's 7 & 56 - I'd guess one or both would "double up" their two channels and sell off the other, which means NRJ may not get a big payday for Boston. Serves them right actually, getting into broadcasting, jsut to sell off and shut down.
mysticnitekatt said:Considering Boston has two duopolies - CBS's 4 & 38 and Sunbeam's 7 & 56 - I'd guess one or both would "double up" their two channels and sell off the other, which means NRJ may not get a big payday for Boston. Serves them right actually, getting into broadcasting, jsut to sell off and shut down.
There are other ways a licensee like NRJ can profit from the incentive auction other than doubling up with another existing licensee. All NRJ has to do is to notify the FCC it's willing to take WMFP off the air for a certain price, and if a wireless broadband provider is willing to meet that price, WMFP goes away from OTA (while retaining cable must-carry, apparently) and NRJ pockets a portion of the auction proceeds. Simply by vacating RF 18, WMFP's disappearance clears the way for the FCC's repacking process to move something from an upper channel (say, WHDH from 42 or WLVI from 41 or WYDN from 47) and then free up one of those channels for a broadband auction winner.
And if NRJ decides it's still making money from being an OTA broadcaster (say, by leasing its main channel to Plum TV), there are still other smaller broadcasters with which it could conceivably share a channel and still reap a portion of the auction dollars: WYDN, for instance, or WWDP, or WBPX.
It is unlikely that the money coming from incentive auction proceeds would be big enough to persuade a CBS or Sunbeam to want to double up its channels, or to persuade Fox (WFXT) or Hearst (WCVB) to want to share either of their RF channels.
I honestly don't see NRJ staying in the broadcasting game - from everything I've read, it seems they are buying up stations to sell off in the incentive auctions. If they do, then I'll eat my words!
It will be interesting to see what duopolies may or may not double up - here in Boston and elsewhere.
You might be right about CBS, but Sunbeam being a smaller company might go for it - if not the first round, maybe in the future.
It will be interesting to see what duopolies may or may not double up - here in Boston and elsewhere.
You might be right about CBS, but Sunbeam being a smaller company might go for it - if not the first round, maybe in the future.
The companies with some cash to sit on probably won't touch the incentive auctions. Nobody knows for sure what 6 full megahertz of spectrum will be worth, ultimately, but the betting line is that mobile DTV (ATSC-M/H) and other services will become profitable sooner rather than later, and so stations that can afford to do so will be trying to hang on to their full 6 MHz (or, in the case of Sunbeam and CBS, 12 MHz) for future use. It's stations like WMFP which have never thrived, and companies like NRJ that aren't in broadcasting for the long haul, that are more likely to want to cash out their spectrum quickly if the FCC makes it attractive to do so. (One could also imagine Univision doubling up WUNI and WUTF and freeing up one of those RF channels; that duopoly is probably going to be quicker to trade spectrum for cash than CBS or Sunbeam.)
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