Dish and Freedom Corp disagreement heats up

[r_childress]

Their retransmission aggreement must be coming for renewal for SD otherwise, threatening to pull the SD unless you agree to add HD amounts to a form of extortion and could land them in hot water legally.

 

[wkomorow]

Bob Furlong from cbs6 appears in the ad and says that unless dish adds the HD feed bs6 and wcwn will be pulled. Though it does make sense that their analog/SD retrans is up. Flampher - you must be in Bennington - can you actually get wcwn reliably? Can anyone? It is very unreliable for me. I can not get their digital signal. according to cbs6s engineer they will be repositioning and adding more power to 45's transmitter after next week. I can only get 6 on a ricochet off bousquet's.

 

[flampher]

Actually I am up in Rutland County but I have quite an elaborate antenna system and am up pretty high. I have had pretty good luck with all the Albany stations except WNYT which is unreliable. WCWN is next and has been pretty good, but kind of so/so lately. I was going to go up another 10 feet but I thought I would wait until the transmitter changes that you mentioned above, as I got that same info from them a few weeks ago, (although I think you meant ch 43, as 45 is their analog signal.)
I just got an e-mail from WNYA today and here it is

Our digital begins at 2:05am this Friday, June 12th. You'll need to rescan your digital converters/tv's to make sure you get us. We will be on digital channel 13, but it will show up as Channel 51.1 on your TV.

Regards,

Duncan Brown
WNYA

sorry if this is a little off topic

 

[david_jr]

I thought about the same thing However, in Albany advertisers seem to be mostly local businesses that probably could care less about a few less Dish customers in the Berkshires. In terms of the emails, Olver's staff must glance at them and initiate autoresponses based on a few key words in the message. At least this is happening in the summer, so mostly repeats and the best time for the disagreement. In addition, 6 will be moving to VHF and increasing power next week, so I should be able to reliably get them off air. (Can't now.)

I'm thinking not just the Berkshires, but the entire DMA; has to be a significant amount of Dish subscribers out there that 6 will be pulling their signal from. Their advertisers should know this. I too am anxiously awaiting 6 going back to 6 so I can get it more reliably OTA. WCWN is a no go though for now. According to WRGB website they are using a directional antenna for 45 (43) that does not send signal toward Columbia county. We are bumping up against Columbia county here. Afer 6 goes to 6 they are supposed to go to a unidirectional antenna according to the site. It still galls me that Freedom refuses to settle when all the other stations in town have made recent agreements. Freedom, like Fisher is being very unreasonable. With Dish getting hosed in court this week, they will be less likely to offer to spend even more money to settle.

 

[david_jr]

I am compiling a list of local advertisers on WRGB this morning since I have the morning off. I am going to start calling these advertisers and let them know that Freedom is pulling WRGB from its dish subscribers and they're losing their audience. When the list is finished I'll post it here so others affected can call too. Something has to be done.

So far I've got:

Green's Appliance Direct
Residential Specialists siding
Times Union Center
Walmart
Lia Hyundai/Toyota
Good Feet Store
Roman Jewels
Martin, Harding & Mazzotti
Quick Response Fire Restoration
Garvey Hyundai
Hana Japanese Steakhouse
Window World
Erie Construction
Mark Lawson Antiques
Baptist Health Rehab Centers
Jean Paul Spa
Yankee Trails World Travel
Affordable Denture
GNH Lumber
Northeast Health Samaritan Hospital
Curtis Lumber
Mohawk Honda
Finklestein & Partners
NY Lottery
Raymour & Flanagan
Bath Expressions Showroom by Security Supply
Terry Chrysler Jeep
Aspen Dental
Taft Furniture
Rensselaer Honda
Greenwich Regional Medical Center
Cats Eye Pest Control
Consumer Credit Counseling Services
Metro Mattress
Old Saratoga Coin
Hippo's Audio Video

Not that many local ads during CBS morning show. I'll watch during the local news tonight should get more local ads then.

 

[wkomorow]

Actually I am up in Rutland County but I have quite an elaborate antenna system and am up pretty high. I have had pretty good luck with all the Albany stations except WNYT which is unreliable. WCWN is next and has been pretty good, but kind of so/so lately. I was going to go up another 10 feet but I thought I would wait until the transmitter changes that you mentioned above, as I got that same info from them a few weeks ago, (although I think you meant ch 43, as 45 is their analog signal.)
I just got an e-mail from WNYA today and here it is

Our digital begins at 2:05am this Friday, June 12th. You'll need to rescan your digital converters/tv's to make sure you get us. We will be on digital channel 13, but it will show up as Channel 51.1 on your TV.

Regards,

Duncan Brown
WNYA

sorry if this is a little off topic

I am pretty sure that it will be WNYA on south mountain in Pittsfield going digital - WNYA-CA in Schenectady I think is staying analog for a while. That's going to be tough to get in Rutland, though at least it will be VHF. Sorry.

 

[wkomorow]

Here is the email I will be sending to various advertisers:

Bob Furlong, the general manager of CBS6 in Albany, NY has begun an ad campaign in which he is threatening to remove their signal from the Dishnetwork satellite service. Dish and CBS6's parent station Freedom Corp. can not come to terms for carrying CBS6's HD signal. Given that Dish has reached agreement with thousands of stations throughout the US and with channels 10, 13, and 23 in Albany for their HD signal, the fee that Dish has agreed to pay must be reasonable. Given the thousand of broadcasters agreeing to Dish's terms, CBS6's demands must be out of line with the marketpalce. What this disagreement means for Dish subscribers is that we will not be able to watch CBS programming via our satellite service. What it means for you as an advertiser is that your commercials will reach several thousand less customers. I urge you to let channel CBS6 know that this is not in their longterm best interest and that they should come to terms with Dish immediately and keep their signal on the Dishnetwork service. Clearly if they do not, I would think that you would want to command a much lower advertising rate since your commercials will have a much reduced audience, though as a Dishnetwork subscriber, I would urge you to pull your advertising from CBS6 until they reach agreement with Dish.

 

[Pepper]

good email. be sure to run it through spellcheck first.

 

[flampher]

I am pretty sure that it will be WNYA on south mountain in Pittsfield going digital - WNYA-CA in Schenectady I think is staying analog for a while. That's going to be tough to get in Rutland, though at least it will be VHF. Sorry.

Could be, but it is licensed for the transmitter in Albany


FM and TV Service Area Maps

 

[Claude Greiner]

YAWN

 

[david_jr]

Here is the email I will be sending to various advertisers:

Bob Furlong, the general manager of CBS6 in Albany, NY has begun an ad campaign in which he is threatening to remove their signal from the Dishnetwork satellite service. Dish and CBS6's parent station Freedom Corp. can not come to terms for carrying CBS6's HD signal. Given that Dish has reached agreement with thousands of stations throughout the US and with channels 10, 13, and 23 in Albany for their HD signal, the fee that Dish has agreed to pay must be reasonable. Given the thousand of broadcasters agreeing to Dish's terms, CBS6's demands must be out of line with the marketpalce. What this disagreement means for Dish subscribers is that we will not be able to watch CBS programming via our satellite service. What it means for you as an advertiser is that your commercials will reach several thousand less customers. I urge you to let channel CBS6 know that this is not in their longterm best interest and that they should come to terms with Dish immediately and keep their signal on the Dishnetwork service. Clearly if they do not, I would think that you would want to command a much lower advertising rate since your commercials will have a much reduced audience, though as a Dishnetwork subscriber, I would urge you to pull your advertising from CBS6 until they reach agreement with Dish.

I updated the advertiser list. I'll be posting it on the Local AVS HD Forum as well. Thanks for the sample email.

 

[wkomorow]

Did you notice the CBS6's local segment on the digital transition this weekend and the various options people have - one of which is to get Dishnetwork - Direct was not even mentioned. Ironic