Seattle HD Locals

[long_time_DNC]

Tribune Broadcasting, West Region:

Donna Stokley
dstokley@tribune.com

I wrote her about KCPQ HD in Seattle and a possible carriage date on Dish Network...hopefully she'll reply.

I encourage others in this thread to email her as well.

 

[cebbigh]

Thanks for the link. I just shot off an email too.

 

[long_time_DNC]

Glad to help! The more folks that write, the better chance we have at letting them know we want it on the dish.

 

[kstile]

I sent a note, too, and got a reply from someone with a title of "Senior Counsel, Tribune Company." Very interesting as he charges that it's all E*'s fault. I don't know why I expected anything better (it would have been nice if someone other than E* was the bad guy in this...) but here's what I received:

You seem to be assuming that we are withholding KCPQ's digital signal,
including its HDTV programming, from EchoStar. Not at all. We are, as
EchoStar has told you, negotiating with them to carry both KCPQ and its
sister station in Seattle, KMYQ (formerly KTWB), which also has a
substantial lineup of HDTV programming. EchoStar has been reluctant to
commit to carry all of our stations. I hope you have made your views known
as emphatically to EchoStar as you have to us, since the decision on which
stations to carry is theirs. There is no federal "must carry" law that gives
a station the right to have its digital/HDTV signal carried locally on
satellite, comparable to the laws that apply to analog signals on cable and
satellite. KCPQ and KMYQ are happy to have their HDTV programming carried on
local cable systems, and look forward to having the same programming
available to our satellite viewers.

We appreciate your interest in KCPQ and hope you'll be able to receive our
HDTV programming soon.

---

Whaddya think? It sounds like Tribune is probably making the pitch to E* that E* can't have any of the Tribune stations unless they take them all. And E* might have problems with that one, given bandwidth issues. I don't know what stations Tribune owns (i.e. which network affiliates), but I can see them being reluctant to take on WB/UPN/CW channels when there is so little HD - what a waste of HD bandwidth to be broadcasting so much SD.

The worst part of this letter to me, however, is that it sounds like the sides aren't even close. And while I got a prompt (same day!) response from Tribune, can you imagine anything close from E*, even ceo@? Sigh...

 

[Jolard]

I think you have discovered the real issue. I am sure that Fox in seattle wants to bundle other channels, and Dish doesn't want to commit to carrying more than just KCPQ.

This kind of fight could last a long time!

I hope they get it resolved soon. I wouldn't mind getting UPN/WB (CW) in high def, but unless there is a reasonable amount of high def programming on those channels, then it is not worth it. Plus, Dish hasn't carried these channels in any other market.

 

[PeggyD]

I just got the same reply to the e-mail I sent yesterday - took about 24 hours. I think Tribune is the problem, KTWB/KMYQ isn't going to be the Seattle CW channel. They are holding us hostage for a channel/service E* isn't providing for anyone else. I will be putting this in my reply to Tribune.

This "package" deal is probably why Comcast carries WB22 in HD. Probably the same thing happened with KING/KONG. UPN11, which has much more HD programming (i.e. Star Trek: Enterprise) isn't carried by Comcast.

 

[cebbigh]

I got the identical reply. Here is the response I sent back:

Dear Pam,

Thank you for your reply. I am pleased to read that you are also working on making KMYQ available as a Dish local HD channel. It should be kept in mind, however, that KMYQ (KTWB) has an extremely strong OTA signal for most viewers in the Seattle area. This is not the case with KCPQ which transmits from Bremerton. Those of us in the Seattle areas that find it difficult to receive KCPQ are more concerned about having a source whereby we can receive a reliable HD signal for KCPQ. We do not feel we should be compelled to change over to cable to do so. We should have the choice. If Tribune is reluctant to provide KCPQ to viewers via Dish we would appreciate your making greater effort to provide a reliable signal for KCPQ OTA.

Sincerely,

Charles Ebbighausen

 

[kstile]

In my continued correspondence with the lawyer from Tribune, he commented, essentially, that I could always go to Cable and that I shouldn't discount the HD programming on KMYQ as being valuable. And when I asked who at Dish I could contact to put pressure on them, he suggested Charlie Ergen. :-(.

And, as expected, the reply from Dish was completely predictable, despite my request that "Please DO NOT simply reply to this message with your standard "it's coming soon":

Thank you for your email. We apologize for the inconvenience caused by this issue. We are still negotiating with our local network providers to have Fox station to be broadcasted in HD. Unfortunately; we cannot give you a specific timeframe on when we will be offering it.

---

What's even worse about this is that KMYQ is *not* going to be the local affiliate for The CW (formerly UPN + WB) so I can't even imagine *any* HD programming on that channel. What could it be? I guess it'll be like KONG - how many hours of HD do they show? Evening Magazine? *Anything* else? This is even more annoying...

 

[cebbigh]

Is Tribune holding DTV to the same requirement? I have no intention of ever switching to DTV (Murdoch - hope the merger rumors aren't true) or cable. But I would think they should be compelled to be fair in their negotiations.

 

[long_time_DNC]

I received a similar reply from Pam. KCPQ/KMYQ seemed to a package deal in the minds of Tribune, and E* doesn't want to carry both (for obvious reasons) and so we, the customers, once again, get the shaft...

Echostar is about as responsive as talking to a brick wall...a form-letter response is all we get (I wrote ceo too...same canned reply).

Yep, this could, potentially, go on for at least 3 more years (then the SD signal goes away anyway).

 

[cebbigh]

No reply to my email yet.

 

[kstile]

In my continued e-mail conversation with the lawyer from Tribune, he noted two things that I thought I'd pass along. As I mentioned earlier, the new channel KMYQ is *not* the CW but rather part of www.mynetworktv.com. Something about "telenovelas" - looks like soap operas and reality shows to me. The only somewhat interesting part is that, according to him:

MyNetworkTV brands itself as America's first all-HDTV network. 100% of their
programming is expected to be broadcast in high definition.

And when I commented that Dish got KING-HD but wasn't forced to take KONG-HD (which is on Comcast), he said:

EchoStar already carries KMYQ's SD signal. We're negotiating in good faith
with EchoStar. We hope to resolve this soon, but it takes two sides to make
a deal.

So my $0.02 on this right now is that absoutely nothing will happen until 9/5/06 (when MyNetworkTV comes online) and even then, it'll be dicey. I think that Tribune holds the cards in this negotiation b/c people like us want KCPQ-HD but aren't willing to drop Dish. When I mentioned that to make us switch carriers is unfair, his response was this:

I disagree that it's unreasonable to suggest that someone change suppliers
if another supplier provides what the customer wants and the other doesn't.
That's competition, and there's no better way for you and others to send a
message to EchoStar (and DirecTV) than to take your business elsewhere if
they don't meet your needs. Otherwise, they win and you're stuck. And so are
we.

Yeah, right, like I'm going to drop Dish b/c of this... It's unbelievable that I would be forced to switch carriers just to get a LOCAL station! I can see the argument, say, if I wanted NFL Sunday Ticket or INHD, but this is OTA and KCPQ-HD (World Series, football!) is being held hostage by Tribune when Dish probably has techincal reasons (bandwidth) that they can't/won't carry KMYQ. Blah!

 

[cebbigh]

Dish will never carry KMYQ as an HD local. If Tribune is serious about this, it's an unreasonable position.

 

[long_time_DNC]

Dish isn't carrying KMYQ's SD signal that I'm aware of...at least not in the Seattle/Tacoma/Olympia market. It's not on my channel guide. So the lawyer has his facts wrong.

I want KCPQ-HD and if KMYQ is (essentially) soaps and reality shows, then I could definitely care less about KMYQ.

As for his argument aboat "competition"...I'm not interested in changing carriers. I've been with Dish for 9+ years and left lousy cable to go with them. I've seen cable lately at my brother's house. It's a little better, but they've got far less HD than Dish and it's far more expensive than Dish. So, I can go without KCPQ-HD, since that's their position. Dish is carrying the SD signal and I'll be satisfied with that despite wanting to see the Hawks in HD.

As far as I'm concerned, Tribune's attitude is hurting themselves a whole lot more than it's hurting me.

 

[cebbigh]

Pretty disgusted with the whole thing. Rotten news for those who can't get a reliable OTA signal for KCPQ. Looks like it's time to start researching if there are any better antennas than the CM4248 I'm currently using.

 

[long_time_DNC]

I agree, it's a disgusting situation...

 

[cebbigh]

On a different subject. I just figured out that the channel guide for 004-00, 005-00, and 007-00 brings up the HD version of the channels carried by dish. I had thought up to this time that they would just display the analog. So I was using the channels 6414, 6415, 6416. I actually had what I thought were the analog channels blocked before so I guess that's why I didn't know. Thought I'd mention it in case someone else didn't know.

Also, after doing a fresh OTA channel search the guide shows 22-1 and 22-2 as KMYQ instead of KTWB. If you do it though be careful about saving the changes because it took me several scans before it displayed 22-1 as an available channel.

 

[long_time_DNC]

004-00, 005-00 and 007-00 brings up the analog versions for me. Did you turn off the local re-mapping in the setup to get that to work for you instead of 6414-6416?

 

[cebbigh]

Interesting. Played around with the menus and it looks like the most likely explanation is under setup/local channels/sat locals/hd priority. I don't recall ever looking at that option before. Not sure what the default would be. If that doesn't do it, I'm not sure what does.

 

[long_time_DNC]

What are your settings in there? I'll tinker with it tomorrow and see what happens.