TNGTony said:
CSPAN, EWTN, TBN, NASA are also PI channels and they are not in the 9400 range. PI channels do not have to be in the 9400 range.
See ya
Tony
Yes, but they were all in place before the PI rules came into effect. Every PI channel since then has been hidden up top. That includes Colours, which is basically an entertainment channel.
On the other hand, some quick research shows that 1)This is not the same as the Canadian version. And 2)It appears to have some tie to Nashville Public Television, and is carried on the sub-channel of NPT.
I did find a press release from 1998 that says it was launching as "digital cable channel" in the second quarter of '99. It has some of the same names attached as the current channel (notably Tom Neff, listed as the current CEO.) Then, I found this story...
http://epaper.ardemgaz.com/Reposito...t/html&Path=ChatTFPress/2005/06/01&ID=Ar03701
Short version...the channel never did launch, but the same players put it back together after the explosion in popular docs over the last few years.
If it is technically a PI channel, it's an extremely well organized and well funded one. It's possible that Charlie just lucked out...PBS-U goes off the air just as he's getting in a fight with Lifetime and along comes a PI channel that's good enough to place among the "regular" channels. Kill two birds with one stone...tell people you've added a new channel to replace Lifetime, while covering your legal PI obligations.
In any case...it's a good trade off for EITHER channel IMO. I never watched Lifetime, and rarely watched PBS-U.