[dhartm9618]

Does anyone know when is dish network going to add channel 25 to their locals?since directv has it I hope dish will get it soon.

 

[TNGTony]

I've been on a constant battle with the folks at Dish! It is INEXCUSABLE that they would refuse to carry this channel. They are the ONLY multichannel carrier in the city that doesn't carry 25 at least part time! The reason I originally went to Dish was because local cable was as IDIOTIC as Dish is being now and refused to carry this channel. Well...now the shoe is on the other foot!

I wouldn't hold my breath for this channel on Dish. MORONS!

See ya
Tony

 

[Mark Holtz]

As you can tell, TNGTony is minorly peeved about this point. I believe TNGTony has even spoken with the station and the station was willing to put in the necessary equipment at their cost in order to get their station on Dish, but it appears that Dish is holding firm on their stance of "alsolutely no LP stations".

Now, lets compare this with several religious stations who were refused carriage and cited that since July 1st, 2001 was on a Sunday, that the deadline should have been July 2nd. The FCC ruled in no uncertain terms that July 1st was a fixed deadline, and that they had over six months to file for must-carry status.

 

[BrettR]

I think the issue is Dish does not want to leave CONUS space for a LP station. The main Cincinnati locals are on CONUS. Maybe if the station was put at 61.5 it wouldnt be an issue, but Charlie doesnt want so many people requesting the free second dish. And a station with UPN programming might get lot of requests.

One comment on mustcarry rules, its okay for a broadcaster to submit a mustcarry request but deliver a good quality signal 12 months later!?

It should be if you cant deliver a quality signal within 5 months, too bad next mustcarry cycle. Why should channel reservation be made for a station that just wants to tie things up but never be able to get the quality signal over? FCC has been strict over stations not properly requesting mustcarry (either not submitting election on time July 1, or not going certified mail) why not be strict over TV stations that are slackers that cant get a video signal over?

 

[bryan27]

Why should channel reservation be made for a station that just wants to tie things up but never be able to get the quality signal over?

I don't think any of the channels have intentionally tried to tie things up. Running a fiber or microwave link doesn't happen over night. If your a station with your studio far from the POP chances are there isn't a fiber line across the street you can connect to and you will have to run a fiber line all the way to the POP. If the station decides microwave, first they have to find an open channel or channels (it may take more then one microwave hop to the POP), apply to build a microwave link, wait a year or two for a CP, and then build the link.

The providers have to save space for channels currently not carried. What would you have them do for the next election period when the 500 stations that didn't make it this time, but now have a link ready in the new period if there was no reserved space.

I think WBOC has a special problem that was caused by E* thinking the must carry would be overturned. Problem 1 is that it is a Class A station. This problem is mostly moot since D* carries it. Problem 2 and the most critical is E*s lack of planning. With 1 spotbeam with 1 TP planned to serve Cleveland, Pittsburgh, and Cincinnati there simply isn't any room to carry it. Those 3 markets will fill up the entire spot and 1 entire CONUS TP. In addition all of Nashville, Denver, and Minn/St.P will remain CONUS in addition to parts of Dallas, and Atlanta.

Of course all will be solved with the MERGER

 

[Guest]

With 1 spotbeam with 1 TP planned to serve Cleveland, Pittsburgh, and Cincinnati there simply isn't any room to carry it.

EEECH! That's a lot of chanels for one transponder!

If anyone wants proof that E*'s "side sats" solution for "lesser" locals is not a temporary band-aid, but a permenant part of the landscape, here it is. Currently all that is on 61.5 for Cleveland is a Univision station that is 100% copy of the national feed we get in the top-100. I would have hoped that E* would have had at least 2 spots for our area (there are 2 for the "Great Lakes" spot that covers Grans Rapids, among others). If the merger fails, will Columbus ever get it's locals on E*?

 

[mattb]

I would think they would actaully add Columbus to E* at one point... I live in Columbus and its not one of the smal markets in terms of DMA.. But you never know E* .. I know from what I understand the columbus stations at least I would think would all be for being added to E*.

The local CBS AFf says they would let E* add em:
"Although we do not currently have such an agreement with Echostar, we have no objections to entering into one. Echostar has not yet made available the necessary technical capacity to deliver local Columbus stations to its subscribers. 10TV hopes that Echostar will soon provide local-into-local service to its subscribers within the Columbus DMA."

The NBC Owned station:
"NBC 4 on Dish Network: NBC has an agreement with Echostar that allows it to retransmit NBC 4 on the Dish Network satellite programming service to subscribers in the central Ohio area. It is up to Dish Network to decide if it would like to offer the NBC 4 service to its subscribers. Please contact Dish Network for more information."

I dont have any info on our ABC/Fox station in columbus i doubt it would be much of a hassle, if DISH would just make the space available for Columbus LIL

 

[TNGTony]

I think it's WBNS that's the problem. I think that's the owner of the crappy Ohio News Network cable channel. Last I heard, the station will not allow retransmission of its signal without the inclusion of ONN in the line-up. This is the same dealbreaker that WKRN Nashville and Dish dealt with for close to a year before WKRN finally backed down. WBNS (?) AFAIK still hasn't given up on that stance. It is so adamant that it even allowed its signal to be yanked from Time Watner Cable in Columbus for a while until TWC agreed to provide that channel on its system throughout Ohio. This channel (ONN) is now available in Cincinnati TWC system and it's a waste of bandwidth.

See ya
Tony

 

[Guest]

ONN was on COX Cable in Cleveland for around 1 year and then it was suddenly yanked.

Having E*, I could only view ONN when visiting someone with COX. I would not mind having ONN on E*, I'm a "news junkie" and would have enjoyed a regional news choice.

One person's "waisted bandwidth" is another's favorite channel. I would not trash whatever channel you want by calling it "waisted bandwidth" so don't trash mine. Once the spots are up there should be enough bandwidth for everyone's favorite channel.

 

[bryan27]

Hey Michael, I like ONN too. Both ONN and PCNC are carried on some of the cable systems here. Living in a sliver of land 10 miles wide between two states has some advantages

 

[mattb]

My biggest beef with ONN is that its a repeative news channel, most of their news programming is recorded then played over and over. if you watch it middays you see the same news cast word for word every half hour. You'd think with the Wolfes wanting it on every dang cable system in Ohio they would put together much better programming, but then again, ONN's offices/studios are located in a "double-wide trailer" .. so I guess shows how much they are putting into their station.

 

[TNGTony]

Sorry Michael. ONN to me has poor production values, bad reporting, bad camera work, bad editing, lousy on screen personalities and incredibly bad local sports coverage. BAD!

Now...the fact that ONN would not allow our community baised, non-profit organization tape the State Football Championship game of a team we'd been following all season including every preliminary play-off game and show it ONLY in 3 communities delayed a WEEK (no never mind that ONN had absolutely no plans to show the game any other time than live) kind of pushed me over the edge on this POS organization.

Also ONN bought the TV rights out from under us. We had purchased non-exclusive non-commercial community TV rights from the OHSAA, then ONN came in AFTER and bought exclusive TV rights and forced the OHSAA (not too hard to do if you waive enough green) to throw us and the oposing team's community TV out on its ear.

So my opinion on this channel may be just a little bit biased.

GO St. X! (But not to the play-offs this year.... )

See ya
Tony

 

[mattb]

Defently not a channel I would want E* to waste bandwidth on ( D* doesnt) ... But thats a personal opinion. I dont think its a channel I'd see Charle adding, he's real picky as is! (which is a good thing IMHO)