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Comcast Removing Detroit and Lansing Channels

Discussion pertaining to the Tri-Cities, Flint, Mt. Pleasant, and Bad Axe
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Ed Joseph
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Re: Comcast Removing Detroit and Lansing Channels

Post by Ed Joseph » Thu Sep 26, 2019 6:35 pm

We removed Comcrap. We're stuck with Direct now, which will also be "removed" as soon as the contract expires. They're even worse than Comcrap, and we'll never go back to them. I guess we go offline. I'm sick of having no choice between greedy, stupid companies.


I confirm all my information through a high, white whore's souse!

fuzzpower
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Re: Comcast Removing Detroit and Lansing Channels

Post by fuzzpower » Thu Sep 26, 2019 9:40 pm

If I ready the Sandusky lineup correctly, they don’t even offer channel 62. Isn’t Sandusky in the Detroit market? Isn’t that must carry?



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rugratsonline
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Re: Comcast Removing Detroit and Lansing Channels

Post by rugratsonline » Thu Sep 26, 2019 11:28 pm

fuzzpower wrote:
Thu Sep 26, 2019 9:40 pm
If I ready the Sandusky lineup correctly, they don’t even offer channel 62. Isn’t Sandusky in the Detroit market? Isn’t that must carry?
Sanilac County is in the Detroit market, so I imagine they would be obligated to carry all major channels serving that market.



ftballfan
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Re: Comcast Removing Detroit and Lansing Channels

Post by ftballfan » Fri Oct 04, 2019 8:46 am

Here's a clipping of when Battle Creek cable attempted to drop WKAR to make room for PASS and WTBS (when cable systems had limits of 35 or fewer channels): https://www.newspapers.com/clip/3225624 ... _enquirer/

Unsure of what happened next, but one of the following happened:
1. WKAR was never dropped
2. WKAR was dropped, but was later re-added



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mtburb
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Location: Wyandotte, 17 miles from Southfield, 38 miles from Oregon

Re: Comcast Removing Detroit and Lansing Channels

Post by mtburb » Mon Oct 07, 2019 10:48 pm

Took them 23 years to finally realize that the Cable Reform Act of 1996 exists. That was why WNWO was dropped from TCI's Downriver systems, which were based out of Woodhaven.


My furthest DTV tropo: KDKA Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania at 202 miles for three days in January 2017 and a night in September 2017 with only an Antennas Direct C2V!

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ftballfan
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Re: Comcast Removing Detroit and Lansing Channels

Post by ftballfan » Tue Oct 08, 2019 5:22 pm

mtburb wrote:
Mon Oct 07, 2019 10:48 pm
Took them 23 years to finally realize that the Cable Reform Act of 1996 exists. That was why WNWO was dropped from TCI's Downriver systems, which were based out of Woodhaven.
I'm not 100% sure whether the act you're mentioning applies to PBS members and other noncommercial stations



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rugratsonline
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Re: Comcast Removing Detroit and Lansing Channels

Post by rugratsonline » Wed Oct 09, 2019 10:07 pm

ftballfan wrote:
Tue Oct 08, 2019 5:22 pm
mtburb wrote:
Mon Oct 07, 2019 10:48 pm
Took them 23 years to finally realize that the Cable Reform Act of 1996 exists...
I'm not 100% sure whether the act you're mentioning applies to PBS members and other noncommercial stations
I don't believe it does -- it mainly applies to commercial stations -- network affiliates, in particular.



JackAttack FM
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Re: Comcast Removing Detroit and Lansing Channels

Post by JackAttack FM » Fri Oct 11, 2019 10:38 am

ftballfan wrote:
Tue Oct 08, 2019 5:22 pm
mtburb wrote:
Mon Oct 07, 2019 10:48 pm
Took them 23 years to finally realize that the Cable Reform Act of 1996 exists. That was why WNWO was dropped from TCI's Downriver systems, which were based out of Woodhaven.
I'm not 100% sure whether the act you're mentioning applies to PBS members and other noncommercial stations
It does. Non-comm/educationals just can't ask for retrans fees.
In fact non-comms can request at least one of their subchannels to also be carried on satellite.
There are better qualifications for non-comms too.

Must-carry even applies to low power stations. Which is probably why you see more of them popping up as network affiliates.



ftballfan
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Re: Comcast Removing Detroit and Lansing Channels

Post by ftballfan » Fri Oct 11, 2019 1:31 pm

JackAttack FM wrote:
Fri Oct 11, 2019 10:38 am
ftballfan wrote:
Tue Oct 08, 2019 5:22 pm
mtburb wrote:
Mon Oct 07, 2019 10:48 pm
Took them 23 years to finally realize that the Cable Reform Act of 1996 exists. That was why WNWO was dropped from TCI's Downriver systems, which were based out of Woodhaven.
I'm not 100% sure whether the act you're mentioning applies to PBS members and other noncommercial stations
It does. Non-comm/educationals just can't ask for retrans fees.
In fact non-comms can request at least one of their subchannels to also be carried on satellite.
There are better qualifications for non-comms too.

Must-carry even applies to low power stations. Which is probably why you see more of them popping up as network affiliates.
Syndex doesn't apply to noncoms AFAIK



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rugratsonline
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Re: Comcast Removing Detroit and Lansing Channels

Post by rugratsonline » Sat Oct 12, 2019 12:07 am

JackAttack FM wrote:
Fri Oct 11, 2019 10:38 am
Must-carry even applies to low power stations. Which is probably why you see more of them popping up as network affiliates.
...which is the only way LPTVs can be must-carry. When we lived in the Tampa Bay area until last year, the market had several LPTVs, but only the Spanish-language channels (such as Azteca-affiliated WXAX channel 26) managed to get marketwide cable slots on Spectrum. Most of them are either not on cable at all, or had to pay to be carried (such as WZRA channel 48, which had to pay Spectrum to be carried, and only in the northern part of Pinellas County). If must-carry applied to all LPTVs, you would have seen much more of them on cable.
ftballfan wrote:
Fri Oct 11, 2019 1:31 pm
Syndex doesn't apply to noncoms AFAIK
They don't. Syndex is another FCC rule that is mainly for commercial stations, and mainly applies to commercially-syndicated programs.



fuzzpower
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Re: Comcast Removing Detroit and Lansing Channels

Post by fuzzpower » Sat Oct 12, 2019 3:25 pm

LPTV network affiliates are usually owned by one of the full powers in town. They require the cable company to carry them as part of compensation. Otherwise, they are not must carry.



JackAttack FM
Posts: 295
Joined: Thu Jan 05, 2012 5:50 pm

Re: Comcast Removing Detroit and Lansing Channels

Post by JackAttack FM » Thu Oct 17, 2019 10:10 pm

ftballfan wrote:
Fri Oct 11, 2019 1:31 pm
JackAttack FM wrote:
Fri Oct 11, 2019 10:38 am
ftballfan wrote:
Tue Oct 08, 2019 5:22 pm
mtburb wrote:
Mon Oct 07, 2019 10:48 pm
Took them 23 years to finally realize that the Cable Reform Act of 1996 exists. That was why WNWO was dropped from TCI's Downriver systems, which were based out of Woodhaven.
I'm not 100% sure whether the act you're mentioning applies to PBS members and other noncommercial stations
It does. Non-comm/educationals just can't ask for retrans fees.
In fact non-comms can request at least one of their subchannels to also be carried on satellite.
There are better qualifications for non-comms too.

Must-carry even applies to low power stations. Which is probably why you see more of them popping up as network affiliates.
Syndex doesn't apply to noncoms AFAIK
A non-comm/educational (NCE) station cannot request program blackouts on another station like syndex. However, there is a syndex-like provision in must-carry where cable systems are not required to carry a NCE whose programming, "substantially duplicates" another NCE.

The formula for 'duplicate programming' being more than 50% duplicate in primetime and more than 50% in the rest of the broadcast schedule over a three month period. And the programming doesn't have to run simultaneously.

Given that many NCEs are PBS affiliates or "member stations" its likely that programming between those stations is over 50% the same.

The qualifications for a NCE station to have must-carry on cable are different then commercial stations with DMAs. A qualified NCE has to be, "licensed to a community whose reference point is within 50 miles of the principal headend of the cable system or whose Grade B service contour encompasses the principal headend of the cable system."

There's also a provision under the signal carriage obligations that all NCEs carried on a cable system on or before 1990 have to stay on. But, its possible the the cable companies are maybe using the 'duplicate programming' provisions to drop PBS member stations.



JackAttack FM
Posts: 295
Joined: Thu Jan 05, 2012 5:50 pm

Re: Comcast Removing Detroit and Lansing Channels

Post by JackAttack FM » Thu Oct 17, 2019 10:42 pm

fuzzpower wrote:
Sat Oct 12, 2019 3:25 pm
LPTV network affiliates are usually owned by one of the full powers in town. They require the cable company to carry them as part of compensation. Otherwise, they are not must carry.
That's retransmission consent.
To say "otherwise" low-power stations cannot get must-carry is incorrect.

There are provisions in the CFR that apply to LPTV and Class A stations to qualify for must-carry.
Low-power stations have to essentially act like a full-power in terms of maintaining a minimum number of hours of operation, meet the same programming requirements for children, news, editorial, political ad rates and EEO. They also have to comply with signal non-interference regulations, be located within 35 miles of the cable headend and deliver a quality signal to the headend. Their community of license must not be in one of the top 160 MSAs and there must be no full-power station licensed to the same county.

There's also no requirement that low-power stations need a network affiliation or that they need to be a part of a retrans consent deal with a full-power sister station to get carried on cable.
Having a network affiliation probably does help with programming requirements .

And there is a mechanism where a low-power station can appeal to the FCC if it meets the qualifications for must-carry eventhough a cable system thinks it does not.



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