Scroll is running stating C-Band PBS on 103w will sunset March 4th, 2019.
Says Ku-band will still be available.
It's been nice knowing you.
Says Ku-band will still be available.
It's been nice knowing you.
It's Official: PBS Sunset March 4th, 2019
- Thread starter gpflepsen
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Well not sure why you deleted your thread and started a new one, but I will copy and paste my reply. 
Will be sad to see it go, even though I never used it much. I have a dedicated 1.2M on 125W Ku.
Will be sad to see it go, even though I never used it much. I have a dedicated 1.2M on 125W Ku.
I heard that too. A lot can happen in 5 years though. Hopefully the more rural PBS affiliates will postpone the demise of the satellite service a little longer. Having East and West time-shifts available on the weekends is extremely handy. My wife and I enjoy "Masterpiece" and having two high quality HD streams will be missed.
When and if this happens I still have an OTA signal and PBS streaming available on my ROKU.
Well not sure why you deleted your thread and started a new one, but I will copy and paste my reply.
Will be sad to see it go, even though I never used it much. I have a dedicated 1.2M on 125W Ku.
I did a double-tap on the phone when posting. Sorry, you had a 50% chance of survival.
Well not sure why you deleted your thread and started a new one, but I will copy and paste my reply.
Will be sad to see it go, even though I never used it much. I have a dedicated 1.2M on 125W Ku.
Same boat.. I watch the 125ku signal almost daily. I'd be devastated if that left.
Guess they didn't get enough of a response to their inquiry looking for C-band users... but maybe the decision was already made. I also have a dedicated Ku antenna for 125w but used the 103w feeds once in a while.
The local PBS station Prairie Public Television (OTA) was fairly reliable until about a year ago (spring 2018), I think they changed something at the broadcast site. Losing the feeds from 125 would be the end of PBS here.
Have to check for LPBS on 83 or 85w...
The local PBS station Prairie Public Television (OTA) was fairly reliable until about a year ago (spring 2018), I think they changed something at the broadcast site. Losing the feeds from 125 would be the end of PBS here.
Have to check for LPBS on 83 or 85w...
Since PBS receives taxpayer funds I was pretty sure I remember legislation was passed years ago that ensured an unencrypted feed for backyard dish owners. Then I found this post (Post id=4305742 quoted below) that references this.
Unless things have changed, the last I read CPB/PBS was planning to drastically reduce the satellite feeds from the current 3.5 Transponder capacity to 1 Transponder and is pushing to have the legal requirement for the "Clear-feed" for backyard dishes repealed so it can be eliminated as well.
Ernie
I think this all started around 1988 when PBS started scrambling its feeds. I found the date in this article:
Pbs Scrambles Satellite Feeds, Dish Owners Suffer
Unless things have changed, the last I read CPB/PBS was planning to drastically reduce the satellite feeds from the current 3.5 Transponder capacity to 1 Transponder and is pushing to have the legal requirement for the "Clear-feed" for backyard dishes repealed so it can be eliminated as well.
Ernie
I think this all started around 1988 when PBS started scrambling its feeds. I found the date in this article:
Pbs Scrambles Satellite Feeds, Dish Owners Suffer
Has anything changed on 125W AMC-21 in the past few months? I used to receive PBS there but after being away from home for a few months I now find that I receive zero there, including Montana PBS on transponder 10. The Ku LNB is fine, I receive Ku programming on every other bird I want to, and I can receive and peak the C-band signal at 125W G-14 just fine. I've tried tweaking the dish position (it's a 10-footer) and skew but still zero signal.
I've noticed that the OTA broadcast from the local PBS affiliate is even worse than it was 6 months ago, with a lot of pixellation and motion artifacts.
I've noticed that the OTA broadcast from the local PBS affiliate is even worse than it was 6 months ago, with a lot of pixellation and motion artifacts.
I watched PBS East on 125W Ku just 2 days ago - it was working fine, maybe a bit weaker than usual but the sky was quite cloudy. But I noticed that I could barely get Montana PBS
If I were a betting man I would put money on PBS, as we know it, being a memory 10 years (or less) from now, if it even exists at all. A huge portion of it's "programming" nowadays is infomercials and other crap and the good stuff that people hang around for, like Victoria, Doc Martin, Masterpiece, and Downton Abbey, for instance, are all available on Acorn and Britbox not too long after showing on PBS. Plus you don't have to put up with fund raiser interruptions watching them. I hope I'm wrong but I'm not optimistic.
Ironically we have been saying we are watching PBS more then at most any other time.
Must depend on the market. We have six channels of PBS, two are in HD and between them carry all the shows you mention, and Nature, NOVA, Frontline, Death in Paradise, This old house and it's satellite shows, Antique Road Show, Call the midwife, Independent lens, Motorweek, Father Brown, News Hour, BBC World News, Simply Ming, Martha Bakes, Specials, among many others. Then there is PBS Kids, PBS Create, and PBS World channels, etc also. There is at least as much if not more infomercials during the day weekends on the other locals than on PBS here.
My prediction is that federal funding for PBS will be reduced or eliminated within 10 years, but as that only makes up a very small fraction of most DMA's PBS funding, I predict PBS will survive in most major markets. From what I understand, those federal dollars were (are) earmarked to support the OTA transmission of PBS stations in the most remote rural areas.
In my market, KCPT is a very well locally-supported station. I don't think a federal funding cut would affect them much at all. Now, how that affects programming at the national level would remain to be seen.
In my market, KCPT is a very well locally-supported station. I don't think a federal funding cut would affect them much at all. Now, how that affects programming at the national level would remain to be seen.
