DIRECTV - TWO New Austin Local Channels

[Adam Richey]

KAKW (Univision) & KBVO (TeleFutura) are now available.

[mnassour]

Interesting thing is that neither channel can be picked up without a MAJOR outside aerial anywhere in Austin. But then the same goes for our alleged UPN affiliate.

[Adam Richey]

Oh, and I apologize. I believe it was you, mnassour, that posted this originally at DBS Forums. I can't take credit for getting this information.

[Brett]

Originally posted by mnassour
Interesting thing is that neither channel can be picked up without a MAJOR outside aerial anywhere in Austin. But then the same goes for our alleged UPN affiliate.

What would be the reason DirecTV added them?

KAKW 62 is licensed to Killeen,TX which is in Waco DMA.
The city of Killeen does not qualify for Austin TX locals on satellite.

KBVO is a Class A station and doesnt have mustcarry "rights"
:confused: DirecTV already offers a national Univision feed so carrying a local affiliate doesnt really benefit them when a national feed is already carried.

What DirecTV needs to offer is WNDS and WENH in the Boston locals package. Dish carries WNDS http://www.dishview.com/wnds/,
I dont know why DirecTV doesnt. There are few other missing local stations DirecTV could pick up on, but carrying channels that are duplicative of a national feed doesnt make sense.

[bryan27]

Brett, KXAN could have had in their carriage agreement that either KBVO or KHPZ be carried. KXAN owns both of those stations. KAKW is anyone's guess.

Also remember that D* isn't as strict as E* when it comes to carrying LPTV/Class-A stations and D* advertises the availability of the local Spanish Net stations on a promo channel at 119.

[mnassour]

Well, this just keeps getting stoopider and stoopider. As of 8:00 AM Monday, the new channels are GONE from the Austin guide!

Methinks someone screwed up bigtime here.

[Brett]

Maybe It'll be back. In the past, DirecTV tested WPXN 31 before it became officially part of the NYC locals package.

From what I read, Time Warner Cable in Austin carries the national Univision feed, but Univision wants Time Warner to carry the local KAKW 62 instead.

Univision can sell local ad time on KAKW plus can get on the lowest level of service. Local broadcast stations are usually on the lowest level of service. KAKW though is a Killeen station not in Waco DMA, and was originally a UPN/WB for the Waco DMA. So it maybe considered sneaky on Univision part to purchase a station from Waco DMA and then try getting carriage in another bigger DMA.

The WB was upset when stations switched to Univision/Telefutura. http://www.upn11tv.com/news/2002/0102a.htm
As Time Warner owns the WB, its no surprise their animosity towards Univision.

Whatever the case, Univision maybe giving DirecTV a break in terms of national license fees for Univision, Galavision if DirecTV carries certain local affiliates in certain markets. And if DirecTV has the space on one of the spotbeams, it wouldnt be a major loss for them to carry it.

I do know Univision or one of the spanish networks also promotes Para Todos, not Dish Latino.

[mnassour]

Whew! That article is quite a riot. I knew there was bad blood between the two, but not that much!

As far as KAKW is concerned, there's no way under God's Green Earth that their signal will ever be seen in Austin unless the FCC OKs an xmtr move (not likely) or TWC picks it up.

As far as I'm concerned, Univision gets what it deserves with this one. It raided the Temple/Waco market for a station and tried to shoehorn it into Austin w/o FCC approval. Univision can't get the stick for this station any closer to Austin than 70 miles NW of town unless the FCC says OK. Serves 'em right!

There's no doubt the Hispanic market in Austin is underserved. There are several Spanish language broadcast outlets, but all are either far away or LPTV. But the kind of shenanagins that Univision is trying to pull with KAKW is a bit much!

[Brett]

The coordinates for KAKW-DT are 30° 43' 34" N 97° 59' 23" W from http://www.fcc.gov/fcc-bin/tvq?call=KAKW

Thats less than 35 miles from Austin, TX according to www.indo.com/distance

Seems they are gearing for the Austin DMA move in. I suppose they may need a change of city of license.

Honestly, I dont understand what city of license means. Maybe Rabbi could explain if its possible for the station to change its city of license.

WWSI 62 here has license of Atlantic City-Philadelphia.
WMGM 40 an NBC station has license of Wildwood-Atlantic City.
WWAC is licensed to Atlantic City and only Atlantic City.

However Ch.62 is less than Grade B quality (70 dBu) and less in Philadelphia. Ch.40 is acceptable in Atlantic City but doesnt cover Atlantic County very strong. Hammonton gets a weak reception of Ch.40.

WWAC-TV 53 an Atlantic City station has its digital station in Waterford Works, Camden County. They did the Philly move-in :)
A local radio station in Southern NJ WSNJ http://www.philly.com/mld/philly/entertainment/4770091.htm
will be doing the Philly move-in.

People in Pennsylvania with digital receivers are now picking up a station they never heard of. Its not listed in any of the Philly newspapers or the Philly TV Guide booklet and not carried on Comcast in Philadelphia.

Whether its ethical or not is a different matter. Purchase a station from a remote area, then move it to a big area that has many stations already, then sell it for a profit or keep it and get cable to carry it.

[bryan27]

City Of License is the "city" where the channel is allocated. There is only one City of License. Adding additional citites that your station serves to your legal ID is permitted, but the actual city of license is always listed first. EX: We ID as WVJW-LP Benwood-Bellaire-Wheeling, but our City of License is just Benwood. A station in Phily could say Philadelphia-The Moon if it really wanted to, but they would have trouble proving that they actually serve The Moon.

There is a "zone" where the transmitter can be physically located before it starts to move too far from the City of License, and starts interfering with other stations. The requirements for a station is that it must provide a City Grade Contour to the entire City of License, the Public Inspection File must be located somewhere accessable in the City of License (usually a public library or court house), the station must maintain a phone number that is free of charge to those in the City of License, and the main studio has to be somehwere in the City Grade Contour.

It is possible for a station to change it's City of License. It is a rather difficult process. For a change in the City of License the station has to move to a "city" which has no local stations, the "city" has to be a real "city". IE: It is incorporated and has city limits. There also has to be other stations in the city you are leaving in the same broadcast service as your station. IE: In order for a TV station to "move" cities the old city has to still have a TV station.

Just a thought. KAKW could ID as Killeen/Austin, file a market waiver with the FCC and set a precident getting itself listed as being in 2 DMAs. Some of those TX markets are so small in area they ought to be just one big one.

[mnassour]

Brett - you're right about the tower being closer to Austin, thanks for that. But, it's running in a very hilly area, meaning that their Class A signal doesn't even make into the northern part of Austin, and their primary audience is in the south and east part of town.

I'm in NW Austin and cannot receive even a ghost of a signal over the air with indoor antennas.

The bottom line....KAKW has been purchased by Univision with the intention of moving it to Austin, and did so before it had any indication that the FCC would approve such a move. That's quite a gamble, as a Hispanic UHF 30 miles outside of Killeen Texas has no audience whatsoever without cable carriage...and Univision knows it.

[Brett]

I take it many though would support Univision over Time Warner.

Note also, Time Warner tried stomping on low power UPN stations in Cincinnati and upstate New York. Time Warner Cable seems to have the attitude they'll carry as few broadcast stations as possible on their lineup even if the additional stations arent charging for their content. They also fight out of DMA stations that have carriage, more than another cable provider would.
They claim they lack space, but those cable newschannels or access channels (promoting digital cable) owned and operated by the cable system always pop up sometime down the road.

TWC also must have the attitude that these competitors are seriously going to inflict some losses for them.

About 1 out 5 in Austin DMA is Hispanic.
http://www.tvb.org/rcentral/markettrack/Top_25_Hispanic_Markets.html

Waco does have Hispanic homes too (not so much though), but if KAKW gets both Waco and Austin homes it would be to their benefit.

If Univision is a popular network and Time Warner is requiring an expensive full basic service, Univision would feel TW alone would hinder them from reaching a bigger audience. With KAKW, if TW carried it, it would secure carriage and even lower level of service carriage. Plus UNI could sell to local advertisers. Local Hispanic community would probably support Univision.

When Ch.65 here switched to UNI, Uni programming became available (in clear format) without a subscription of cable. Ch.65 has no newscast, but they have some local commercials. Mostly car dealerships, but I think Univision requires commercials be in Spanish if they want to get aired. I suspect Time Warner is afraid car dealerships will go to the Univision station or UPN or indys, thats Time Warner's scare.

According to
http://www.austinchronicle.com/issues/dispatch/2002-10-04/pols_naked3.html
KAKW will launch a newscast too, which will help KAKW say they serve such an such towns, and get better public support.

I'd be nice if Univision launched a newscast on WUVP 65. However its still a Vineland licensed station. Vineland NJ is far from Philly (definitely not a commuter town) and unlike Reading or Allentown, Vineland is just a small town. I wonder how Vineland got assigned a full power station to begin with.

PAX uses rimshots, and their bigger problem is they dont have ratings. They added more infomercials, and now start programming at 5PM EST with Bonanza. I know people buy products from infomercials, but I'd prefer the rimshots to have programming for their city of license, but with cable networks and VHF stations, the UHF stations even with mustcarry are still not at an advantage.

[mnassour]

Well Brett, the point here in Austin is that this is a station moving in from the outside...that unless it gets cable/satellite coverage...will not be able to be seen in the city it claims as its home market.

TWC here in Austin has made it very, very clear that this outside station will not get a low channel number with the original locals. At this point, it's a standoff.

I'm not saying Austin doesn't need a Spanish language newscast. It most certainly does! But Univision's strongarm tactics are not better than the garbage we've had to put up with from TWC in the past.

May they both lose.