WHAT IS GOING TO BE THE FUTURE OF SUBCHANNELS ?

[jegrant]

Admittedly there is not a ton of incentive for them right at the moment, but what about Discovery eventually launching a diginet/subchannel? They have a ton of library content, and a lot of it is even E/I compliant. The subchannel could show a bunch of the stuff that they don't show on cable anymore. And they could use it to promote their forthcoming OTT service.

Also, yes, bandwidth reduction is a concern, but hopefully we'll adopt H.264 or better, sooner than later, and then we may still be able to do subchannels even with less bandwidth.

 

[osu1991]

Unfortunately atsc 3 will render my current ota DVRs useless

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

If you sit me down in front of MASH, CHEERS or Two and a Half Men, I will watch even if I have seen them 50 already.

Don't know why they just suck me in.

 

[osu1991]

Same way with original star trek and Hogan's Heroes. I can watch them anytime

 

[Mr Tony]

Two and a Half Men, I will watch even if I have seen them 50 already.

just the Charlie Sheen episodes though

 

[foghorn2]

Need classic cartoons, 67-70's Spiderman, Superfriends, Casper, Speed Buggy, Hong Kong Phooey on Saturday mornings, Bugs Bunny/Looney Tunes would be perfect but may be too expensive.

I was a big fan of KTVU channel 2 in Oakland California back in the day. They had great local news @ 7 and 11 and the the 8- O'clock Movie. They would show a wide range of movies uncut, even stuff like Porky's and Private Lessons.

Then they had uncut Horror movies Saturday nights called "the Creature Feature".

Would be nice for one of these subchannels to really aim big and make TV exciting again.

 

[Radioguy41]

At least one of them was showing Harveytoons on either a Sat or Sun morning but I don't remember which one, I just remember catching some a week or so ago. I look forward to the 3 Stooges and Hopalong Cassidy weekend mornings.

 

[timelord56]

Harveytoons are on Retro TV and PBJ.

 

[andy_horton]

I think that the innovative solution is to develop new- sub channel networks. IF the media can break the binding chains of subscription TV (cable-satellite) then there would be room to put sub channels for advertiser supported specific-interest networks such as News, Weather, Sc-fi, HGTV/DYI/cooking, kids, sports, etc.

Our local PBS channel has the "Create" channel. It's a subchannel. Don't now if it's a national channel or not but it shows cooking shows, painting shows, that show where they tell you how much something is worth, and a little tech sometimes. Oh and a lot of travel shows.

 

[N5XZS]

Used to get KTVU-TV via TV skip back in the late 70's in Albuquerque, NM!

It's shame it could been a superstation.

 

[Mr Tony]

Our local PBS channel has the "Create" channel. It's a subchannel. Don't now if it's a national channel or not but it shows cooking shows, painting shows, that show where they tell you how much something is worth, and a little tech sometimes. Oh and a lot of travel shows.

yeah its a subchannel. a fair amount of PBS stations carry it (mine in Duluth, MN does).
Minneapolis has parts of it on their secondary PBS station (TPT Life)

 

[spongella]

I'm still waiting for Chiller Theater and Zacherly show reruns.

 

[Kraven]

There are so many shows still in the vault that Sub Channels could introduce 3-4 new additions in their line-up quarterly and still have enough material for decades.

Ex: Mr Ed, Leave it to Beaver, Musters, Adams Family, Car 54, Dragnet, My 3 Sons, Ed Sullivan, Loony Tunes, Hitchcock, Stooges, Superman etc

What I'd like to see if a classic Sci-Fi sub channel along w/ a "hosted" Saturday night movie like in the old days

 

[Mr Tony]

Ex: Mr Ed,

antennatv

Leave it to Beaver

antennatv

Musters,

saw it on the local Indy a few weeks ago. not on any classic TV stations

Adams Family,

ThisTV

Car 54

nowhere,

Dragnet,

CoziTV

My 3 Sons,

was on MeTV...on hiatus right now

Ed Sullivan, Loony Tunes,

OK ya got me there

Hitchcock,

AntennaTV AND MeTV (different shows)

Stooges,

antennaTV

Superman

which version? I know the old one is on MeTV

 

[MikeD-C05]

There are so many shows still in the vault that Sub Channels could introduce 3-4 new additions in their line-up quarterly and still have enough material for decades.

Ex: Mr Ed, Leave it to Beaver, Musters, Adams Family, Car 54, Dragnet, My 3 Sons, Ed Sullivan, Loony Tunes, Hitchcock, Stooges, Superman etc

What I'd like to see if a classic Sci-Fi sub channel along w/ a "hosted" Saturday night movie like in the old days

Metv has what you are looking for on Sci-Fi Saturday nights even with a hosted movie around 9:00pm central time .

05:00pm Adventures of Superman
06:00pm Batman
07:00pm Wonder Woman
08:00pm Star trek
09:00pm Movie of the week hosted by a host; This week The Brides of Dracula.
11:00pm Lost in Space
12:00am Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea

 

[Kraven]

In this area, the ONLY sub we get is ME-TV

 

[kittyhas1000legs]

yeah its a subchannel. a fair amount of PBS stations carry it (mine in Duluth, MN does).
Minneapolis has parts of it on their secondary PBS station (TPT Life)

It's by far my wife's and my favorite channel. We get Create out of Springfield, MA and CPTV4U out of Hartford, CT. Our dvr is pretty full of gardening/cooking/yoga from those two channels.

 

[Mr Tony]

In this area, the ONLY sub we get is ME-TV

only sub I get in Duluth too
(we have subs but its the PBS ones, CW & My)

 

[Radioguy41]

MeTV shows Thriller!, Night Gallery, and Alfred Hitchcock, allbeit in the middle of the night (2:30AM-5AM) but then that's what DVRs are for.
Twilight Zone is 9:30PM on MeTV.
One Step Beyond is on RetroTV, Sat 5-6PM
Dr Who is on RetroTV, Sat 6-8PM

 

[jegrant]

I'm just irritated that my local PBS stations manage to broadcast Create on 1.5 channels (it's full time on one PBS subchannel and carried 12 hours a day on the other PBS's subchannel). Yet they cannot broadcast PBS World, MHz WorldView, Link TV, or any other similar service. One of them used to have Create for 12 hours and World for the other 12 hours, but dropped World because it didn't bring in enough $. I found out it costs stations $1,000/year each for Create and World (or at least it did at one point) so I guess there is an argument there. I don't think MHz charges, but Create is overwhelmingly popular and non-controversial, so I can see why stations would just stick with it.

I also think that the next PBS subchannel to go national should be "WETA UK" - it puts BBC America to shame with a full schedule of UK programming and few or no American reruns. http://www.weta.org/tv/uk/printable-schedule Unfortunately, I think the licensing might be expensive.

One idea I came up with would be to partner with Acorn, the online UK video on demand service, and offer a national "Acorn UKTV" channel that would promote Acorn's VOD service but also supply a 24/7 UK stream for PBS affiliates that want one. Perhaps some shows would premiere on the VOD service then air later on the subchannel, or vice versa.