General Broadcast/Free-To-Air TV thread

[homeofthebadguys]

I've seen that the Kidsclick discussion thread drift into news about events in broadcast generally since KidsClick closed down back in April and decided after dealing with that for a while to make this thread.
The point of this thread is to talk about networks with air coverage or local channels.

You know how the "General International TV Channels Thread" is claiming to be the "DigitalSpy" of this forum? I'm trying to make this something like the "RabbitEars" of this forum. Free-to-Air & Free-To-View TVRO satellite discussion will be allowed here as it does tie in with this thread's theme.

To get this off to a start, E.W. Scripps is planning to launch CourtTV on broadcast, streaming and Pay-TV (coverage outside of local cable is to be seen). Tribune is setting up to launch CourtTV to replace This affiliates across multiple areas.

Here is Every Market Court TV Is Relaunching In As a Free OTA TV Network on May 8th 2019 | Cord Cutters News

Back in December, it was announced that Katz Networks was relaunching the crime network Court TV. First launched back in 1991 the network was relaunched as truTV in 2007. Now we have an exact launch date of May 8th 2019 for Court TV’s return as a free over the air TV network. “Court TV was …

www.cordcuttersnews.com

 

[ProtoGentIsDead]

I've seen that the Sinclair Kidsclick thread drift into news about events in broadcast generally since KidsClick closed down back in April and decided after dealing with that for a while to make this thread.
The point of this thread is to talk about networks with air coverage or local channels.

You know how the "General International TV Channels Thread" is claiming to be the "DigitalSpy" of this forum? I'm trying to make this something like the "RabbitEars" of this forum.

To get this off to a start, E.W. Scripps is planning to launch CourtTV on broadcast, streaming and Pay-TV (coverage outside of local cable is to be seen). Tribune is setting up to launch CourtTV to replace This affiliates across multiple areas.

Here is Every Market Court TV Is Relaunching In As a Free OTA TV Network on May 8th 2019 | Cord Cutters News

Back in December, it was announced that Katz Networks was relaunching the crime network Court TV. First launched back in 1991 the network was relaunched as truTV in 2007. Now we have an exact launch date of May 8th 2019 for Court TV’s return as a free over the air TV network. “Court TV was …

www.cordcuttersnews.com

Looks like Nebraska was not even lucky to see the return of CourtTV.

What if cable companies give customers the broadcast surcharge with their bills?

 

[homeofthebadguys]

Looks like Nebraska was not even lucky to see the return of CourtTV.

They must not have an affiliate ready. CourtTV is supposed to stream live as soon as the launch occurs, but the site won't be live before 08 May, if the launch date is correct.

What if cable companies give customers the broadcast surcharge with their bills?

I take it you don't know how re-transmission fees work in the United States.

Retransmission consent - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Usually, local broadcasters will ask for US$.10 (at minimum) per local channel rebroadcast.
This is one of the reasons why the recent budget-focused Pay-TV services don't deal with the big six networks in the United States.

 

[RandomMe]

Since the new network will replace This TV, then will it change stations in October?

 

[homeofthebadguys]

Since the new network will replace This TV, then will it change stations in October?

That depends on if any other affiliates in the area pick This TV up or not.
Last I seen them, This TV was focusing on TV shows more than movies, so the affiliation (I suspect) is being changed due to redundancy with Antenna TV (another Tribune network that focuses on classic TV).

 

[RandomMe]

That depends on if any other affiliates in the area pick This TV up or not.
Last I seen them, This TV was focusing on TV shows more than movies, so the affiliation (I suspect) is being changed due to redundancy with Antenna TV (another Tribune network that focuses on classic TV).

Now I understand.

 

[zeebre12]

Will Court TV also air other older crime related TV shows like Forensic Files along with court/trial programming?
Also why is there no OTA platform in the US like Freeview in the UK and other FTA services in other countries? OTA TV is only through antenna in the US, why is there not? Why is it not built into the TVs either?

 

[homeofthebadguys]

Will Court TV also air other older crime related TV shows like Forensic Files along with court/trial programming?

All I know (and all other people have) is that the new CourtTV will be running old trials that were bought from WarnerMedia, but it'll be exclusively trials. Americans already have Justice Network and Escape (Escape has crime shows, but it's not the focus as people have called it a free equivalent to something like "Lifetime") for crime, so even if E.W. Scripps added crime shows, it would be redundant since we already have 2 channels focused on crime shows.

Also why is there no OTA platform in the US like Freeview in the UK and other FTA services in other countries? OTA TV is only through antenna in the US, why is there not? Why is it not built into the TVs either?

There are TVs without digital tuners from Vizio, but that's more of a recent thing.
Analog tuners are a thing in the United States as well (which explains all the digital tuner boxes available), not to mention network-based tuners such as the HDHomeRun.
Other than those two, it's common to find a TV with a built-in tuner in America. It's sort of the same situation everywhere with TVs having tuners unless a manufacturer makes a Tuner-less TV (and even then, you'd be looking at monitors by that point).
FTA does exist in other countries, but they use different broadcast systems (China and Cuba uses DTMB for everything, South Korea has a mobile TV system (DMB) that operates concurrently with ATSC (America has a handheld version of ATSC, but it isn't used), DVB is the European and North Asian (Russia) standard that has a widespread use across satellites in America and then there's ISDB which is used by various East Asian and Central-South American countries and Botswana).

 

[RandomMe]

@homeofthebadguys: Update: last month Angola chose the ISDB-T standard, becoming the second African country to use it.

 

[TVFan88]

Tomorrow is the launch of the Court TV revival

 

[homeofthebadguys]

Just a correction about my affiliate: KTXL-TV won't be affiliating with CourtTV until November.
There are affiliates that won't start until November as well.

 

[PF9]

CBS I've noticed is the only major free-to-air TV network that has succeeded with military-themed shows.

The CW and NBC each tried one a few years ago but both efforts were canceled after one season.

I hope one day other broadcast networks will succeed in this genre.

 

[Radiant97]

Part of the reason I think is because of CBS's older audience.

 

[zeebre12]

Ion Life now seems to be positioned as a scripted TV drama channel and has moved away from the lifestyle programs. All it has is reruns of just 4 series on a loop The Listener, Saving Hope, White Collar and Rookie Blue and the odd lifestyle show thrown in. Surely they can acquire the rights to more than 4 shows or air more shows that are on the main Ion channel?

 

[homeofthebadguys]

Ion Life now seems to be positioned as a scripted TV drama channel and has moved away from the lifestyle programs. All it has is reruns of just 4 series on a loop The Listener, Saving Hope, White Collar and Rookie Blue and the odd lifestyle show thrown in. Surely they can acquire the rights to more than 4 shows or air more shows that are on the main Ion channel?

It's almost like Ion Life is now being treated by Ion Media as less than nothing since importing Canadian lifestyle shows hadn't worked for them. Never mind that most of Ion's free services have infomercials (here I thought the Ion O&O stations carrying ShopTV was supposed to make that happen less) during the night hours while the paid services just loop the Ion schedule over the infomercials.
My area's Ion station is like any other Ion O&O station, save for repeating KCSO-LD's main programming in widescreen 480i, possibly to increase the coverage for Telemundo to the entire market.

 

[TVFan88]

It's almost like Ion Life is now being treated by Ion Media as less than nothing since importing Canadian lifestyle shows hadn't worked for them. Never mind that most of Ion's free services have infomercials (here I thought the Ion O&O stations carrying ShopTV was supposed to make that happen less) during the night hours while the paid services just loop the Ion schedule over the infomercials.
My area's Ion station is like any other Ion O&O station, save for repeating KCSO-LD's main programming in widescreen 480i, possibly to increase the coverage for Telemundo to the entire market.

The Next Thing you know that what if qubo is a about to replaced by a Weigel owned channel by the name of StartTV for Ion Media stations so Other Broadcast stations (not o&o by ion media) can carry qubo

 

[PF9]

25 years ago, Fox and New World entered into a partnership that would change the face of broadcast TV in the US.

My market, Cleveland, was one of many affected as the longtime CBS affiliate switched to Fox and vice versa.

 

[RandomMe]

25 years ago, Fox and New World entered into a partnership that would change the face of broadcast TV in the US.

My market, Cleveland, was one of many affected as the longtime CBS affiliate switched to Fox and vice versa.

This led to FOX Television Stations becoming one of the largest O&O conglomerates for about a decade, some of the stations were sold off in 2007.

Some cities had a more complex system like Phoenix. The new local CBS affiliate was going to be a former independent station that was affiliated to CBS before.

 

[zeebre12]

CBD are going to launch a new lifestyle subchannel called Dabl later this year. Why did CBS not have it as a CBS branded channel like CBS Living or something like they have CBS News/Sports HQ? Where will CBS get programming for this channel?
ABC are in the process of getting rid of Live Well Network while CBS are launching a lifestyle channel. Why are ABC axing Live Well Network it's still going in some areas isn't it?

CBS to Launch DABL Digital Lifestyle Channel in September

CBS is moving into the lifestyle channel arena with the launch of DABL, a digital multicast network set to launch in September through its CBS Television Distribution unit.

variety.com

 

[RandomMe]

I believe Live Well Network was technically a third-party network. Disney might not have owned it wholesale.