Interesting statement from station manager (re: HD Locals)

[venuslight]

WLEX, the NBC affiliate in Lexington, KY (DMA #63) posted on their website a letter to a cable operator in the area. It basically took Time Warner Cable to task for not carrying their HD feed (they also have local news in HD). It's an interesting read:

http://wlex.images.worldnow.com/images/incoming/timewarner.pdf

In it, however, it states that:

"...we take comfort in the fact that local residents may bypass Time Warner Cable and receive our HD signal simply by connecting an antenna to their HD television set, their DIRECTV box, or their EchoStar's DISH Network box. We also are grateful that both DIRECTV and EchoStar's DISH Network value our HD programming and the Greater Lexington community enough that both companies will begin carrying LEX's HD signal on their satellites in the next several weeks and offering it to their local customers without the need for an antenna and without any additional charges."


Has anyone heard anything about Lexington getting lit up soon?

I haven't seen Lexington on any recent list of HD Locals. Is this a case of a GM "stretching" the truth?

[Earl Bonovich]

The very last piece is not 100% accurate... at least for DirecTV...

To get HD locals, via SAT... you do have to have an HD based package... as well have a package that includes their locals.

I don't have any information about LEX going live or not.

[venuslight]

The very last piece is not 100% accurate... at least for DirecTV...

To get HD locals, via SAT... you do have to have an HD based package... as well have a package that includes their locals.

I don't have any information about LEX going live or not.

You're right about the HD package, but I doubt the GM was going to go into detail about D* pricing structure.

I'm just trying to figure out if he's got any info about Lexington going live or not. I would assume they would at least have to have some kind of agreement in place before he could make such a claim.

Do you know what the process is? agreements, uplink, going live - in that order?

[Earl Bonovich]

Do you know what the process is? agreements, uplink, going live - in that order?

In generall... yes that would be the order.
But in some cases... I am sure there are some stations that are all ready setup, ready to go... just waiting for agreements to be agreed to.

[Greg Bimson]

The only piece of info I can give is that Evening Post, the owner of the NBC station in Lexington, recently added their NBC station in Santa Barbara. It was the first Evening Post station in HD on DirecTV.

So it appears there is a corporate-wide agreement. The question is if there are plans by DirecTV to have Lexington up quidkly.

For grins and giggles, in the Lexington market:

ABC: Owned by Media General, which has an agreement with DirecTV (numerous affiliates)
CBS: Owned by Gray Communications, which has an agreement with DirecTV (Madison's NBC is owned by Gray, and is on DirecTV)
NBC: Owned by the aforementioned Evening Post
FOX: Owned by Sinclair (with which we know DirecTV has come to terms)

[venuslight]

Greg, thanks for the info.

Is it the case that if D* is broadcasting a station from a company, that it most probably has a company-wide agreement to air stations from different markets of that company?

If so, they should be ready to go with Lexington, no?

The only hold up would be if D* is willing to dedicate bandwidth to DMA #63 ?

[skaeight]

Earl,
Right now are there any bandwidth constraints that are holding up the launch of new HD locals? I'm just curious if future locals will be on the new satellites, or if they are kind of just being slow and careful about their deployment for other reasons.

I live in the Scranton / WB market which is #53 and has been skipped over.

Just curious what types of factors play into them deciding when the next batch of locals will go HD.

[Greg Bimson]

Is it the case that if D* is broadcasting a station from a company, that it most probably has a company-wide agreement to air stations from different markets of that company?I'd say that is correct.

Look at the two largest issues since DirecTV started rebroadcasting the HD (digital) locals. Fisher Broadcasting, which owns both the ABC stations in Seattle and Portland, OR, went available on the same day.

Tribune, which owns a few FOX affiliates but owns a butt-load of large-market CW's, pretty much had a large chunk of their stations available on DirecTV within a week of the signed agreement.

Most of these stations are corporate-owned. Each station does not have to negotiate for carriage, especially when the company can have an in-house lawyer draw up a master agreement for all channels.

[skaeight]

I looked into the ownership of the channels in my DMA (Scranton/WB) and it really doesn't look good for me. Here's the breakdown:

WNEP - 16 (ABC) - Local TV (Formerly New York Times)
WYOU - 22 (CBS) - Nexstar Broadcasting Group
WBRE - 28 (NBC) - Nexstar Broadcasting Group
WOLF - 56 (FOX) - CP Media, LLC

CP Media is local, so there wasn't much I could look into there.

However I looked first at Local TV to see if they own any channels in markets which already have HD locals. I found they own the CBS affiliate in Memphis. Which according the list on this site isn't carried (the only one of the big 4 not carried in that market).

Next I looked into Nexstar. They own an NBC affiliate in the Washington-Hagerstown market - that station is not carried. However the reason for that might be that the DC NBC is already carried.

This little bit of research on my part seems to indicate that the holdup on Scranton may be contractual issues and not bandwidth.

[dconfer]

I looked into the ownership of the channels in my DMA (Scranton/WB) and it really doesn't look good for me. Here's the breakdown:

WNEP - 16 (ABC) - Local TV (Formerly New York Times)
WYOU - 22 (CBS) - Nexstar Broadcasting Group
WBRE - 28 (NBC) - Nexstar Broadcasting Group
WOLF - 56 (FOX) - CP Media, LLC

CP Media is local, so there wasn't much I could look into there.

However I looked first at Local TV to see if they own any channels in markets which already have HD locals. I found they own the CBS affiliate in Memphis. Which according the list on this site isn't carried (the only one of the big 4 not carried in that market).

Next I looked into Nexstar. They own an NBC affiliate in the Washington-Hagerstown market - that station is not carried. However the reason for that might be that the DC NBC is already carried.

This little bit of research on my part seems to indicate that the holdup on Scranton may be contractual issues and not bandwidth.



Thanks for doing this. I am waiting for this also. Glad I have DNS.

[Newshawk]

...I looked first at Local TV to see if they own any channels in markets which already have HD locals. I found they own the CBS affiliate in Memphis. Which according the list on this site isn't carried (the only one of the big 4 not carried in that market).

Local TV also just purchased KFOR-4 in Oklahoma City from the New York Times. They, too, are the lone holdout in OKC since Griffin came onboard with KWTV 9 (along with KOTV 6 in Tulsa).

[Nomo1]

There was just a post on Talkback 16 that they are not carried on Dtv due to bandwidth issues. This came from Mark Sowers, the webmaster. His advice was to use an antenna. I'm not sure how that antenna is supposed to pick up the signal for me ninety miles away, through lots of mountains.

[skaeight]

Thanks for doing this. I am waiting for this also. Glad I have DNS.

I also have DNS for ABC, NBC, & FOX. Just wish I had CBS. The other thing is I kind of hope that they get our HD locals up by fall. I'd like to watch the Steelers/ Eagles gams in HD, but there won't be all that many of them on the NY locals (and I don't have CBS there will barely any steelers to begin with.)

[dconfer]

I also have DNS for ABC, NBC, & FOX. Just wish I had CBS. The other thing is I kind of hope that they get our HD locals up by fall. I'd like to watch the Steelers/ Eagles gams in HD, but there won't be all that many of them on the NY locals (and I don't have CBS there will barely any steelers to begin with.)

I have all 4 of the DNS station. Even still it would be nice to get the locals. But cant complain still get to see tv in HD. I agree that I hope they get them up before the new season starts. I keep looking to see if they add WB/Scranton to the list.

[Herdfan]

CBS: Owned by Gray Communications, which has an agreement with DirecTV (Madison's NBC is owned by Gray, and is on DirecTV)

Greg,

That is some of the best news I have seen. What it means is that when my market (#64 Charleston, WV) launches, all 4 nets will be available. I had contacted the station and asked them if they had an agreement and got back a non-commital answer. So if Gray has an agreement in place, I would make the assumption it would cover all their affiliates.

[Greg Bimson]

So I've decided to share my Excel file, but in this case, I've made it a web page. If anyone wants any information for what channels to expect if your market ever becomes available, click here (http://www.dbsforums.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=73449) and grab the zip file. It only contains a webpage; the one I created to track all of this.