Superstations

[Yragha]

Is anyone eligible for these? KTLA, WPIX, KWGN, WSBK and WWOR

Are these available to subscribe on the website or do I have to pay a "order fee" and call and talk to someone?

Thank you.

 

[MikeD-C05]

Call Dish and ask if you are eligilble. Or go to their website and check and see if you are eligible on their locals page. It will list if you are, under the locals that come up .

1-800-333-DISH or www.dishnetwork.com

 

[TNGTony]

There is no "order fee" when adding monthly programming. Check your qualifications for locals. At the bottom of the page that comes up for your address it will tell you what superstations you qualify for. Most of the country qualifies for all the stations.

See ya
Tony

 

[Yragha]

Shows I'm eligble for locals which I've declined of course since I get them off air, shows I'm eligble for WB stations (list the stations) but while it shows UPN logo it doesn't list any of the station, WWOR and WSBK which I was hoping for. Why wouldn't Houston be eligble for the Boston and New York stations?

 

[TNGTony]

Because your local stations decided to excersize their right of syndicated exclusivity. Instead of provviding a channel where Dish has to black out programs at the requesto of local channels, Dish will save everyone the trouble and just not offer the channel in that area.

See ya
Tony

 

[Yragha]

Well, I have to wait til tomorrow to see if the website is correct caus the hold time tonight was inexcusable. I've only had Dish for a week....is it usually a 20-25min. wait at nights?

 

[HCI]

Just a question. It may be off subject but with dish can you change your programming online. I know you can with D*. Again I know it is off subject but I am just curious. Thanks.

 

[Darrell S]

Just a question. It may be off subject but with dish can you change your programming online. I know you can with D*. Again I know it is off subject but I am just curious. Thanks.

You can add some channels and packages,but you can't delete online. They want to talk to you because they think they can talk you out of dropping channels with the 5.00 drop fee.

 

[HCI]

Thanks Darrell S

 

[KE4EST]

I have had to call to drop channels with no prob. I think there logic is: get it on line now no talking to no body....But if you you want to drop some channels...dang it 25min hold..<click> so you keep paying.....also a lot of people would rather not have to talk to someone to drop channels. So they keep paying until they have no choice but to call. Other bills need to be payed or whatever.

 

[TNGTony]

Virtually no hold time after 12am eastern. I usually call between 1 and 4 am (i am usually up at this time) and never had to hold more than a minute.

See ya
Tony

 

[Yragha]

well, actually talked to someone in less than a minute this morning which was much better than the 20min. I waited the other night. Needless to say, WB superstations are available but as the fellow poster mentioned above the local UPN station is restricting access or something to the superstation UPN. The csr said you have an UPN in your local area and I acknowledged that yes indeed but I like some of the 'other' sitcoms available on WSBK and WWOR that aren't available on UPN here. Oh well, wonder what will happen when the WB and UPN go bye bye in a few months.

Any ideas?

 

[Chris Freeland]

well, actually talked to someone in less than a minute this morning which was much better than the 20min. I waited the other night. Needless to say, WB superstations are available but as the fellow poster mentioned above the local UPN station is restricting access or something to the superstation UPN. The csr said you have an UPN in your local area and I acknowledged that yes indeed but I like some of the 'other' sitcoms available on WSBK and WWOR that aren't available on UPN here. Oh well, wonder what will happen when the WB and UPN go bye bye in a few months.

Any ideas?

I guess all you can do is cross your fingers, say a little prayer and try again in September .

 

[Stargazer]

I wonder if we could expect a new superstation soon in the package? Also I am guessing that WPIX and KTLA will go to the CW Network but the others are questionable and may go independent.

 

[TNGTony]

Stargazer, there will never ever ever ever ever be a new superstation. Repeat after me, "there will never be any new superstations". Once again just to make sure you and anyone else who was under the impression that there would be new superstations: "There will never be any new super stations".

Superstations are a relic of the past and only exist today because Congress has specifically exempt the 6 (now 5) super stations from copyright and SyndEx civil laws that would have otherwise made these stations unavailable outside their local markets.

Why are these stations specifically single out? Because before the crack down and enforcemnt of SyndEx and copyright laws (which existed before cable, but they were never enforced until programmers started feeling it in their pockets..the first major change goes back to 1984) these were already available throughout the country. There were dozens of superstations in 1984. Since then, no new superstations would ever be available. And any station that gave up superstation status could never reinstate it.

WTBS is not a superstation. WTBS is the sole broadcast affiliate to TBS Cable.

WGN TV 9 Chicago is still considered a superstation in the SHVIA, however WGN does not allow WGN 9 to be sold outside the Chicago area. Only WGN Superstation (a cable channel that shares about 60% of the programming schedule with its broadcast partner) is available outside Chicago.

Another thing to remember is that the 5 existing superstations were supersation well before UPN, WB and even Fox was thought of. These channels became popular because of the sports programming (particularly baseball) they offered WWOR used to be an independent NYC channel (Secaucus, NJ) with local programming and Mets baseball.
WGN showed every single Cubs game every season.
KTLA has the home for the Dodgers
WPIX was the Yankee's home.
KWGN... I have no idea, this was beore the Rockeys came about. But KWGN was a large regional independent channel.

The channels had shown baseball for DECADES! This was before the advent of 5800 sports channels that all want to charge a ton of money.

So... just to reveiw... repeat afte me, "There will never ever be a new superstation"

See ya
Tony

 

[Lucky]

Tony, do think that the current five superstations will remain superstations and available to us on Dish network as they are now ?

 

[TNGTony]

Yes. I believe as long as they are legal to sell, Dish will continue to offer them . The statutory expemtion runs out on 12/31/09 unless it is renewed a 4th time. But each encarnation of the superstations exemption is slightly more restrictive.

However there is the little sticky issue about the DT vs TV stations. The SHVIA specifically exempts the 5 stations by call letters followed by -TV and NOT -DT. The new digital TV stations are -DT (WWOR-DT, not WWOR-TV). So if you want to interpret the SHVIA stirctly by the letter, once the superstations change over to digital and turn off their analog -TV stations, they cannot be legally sold outside their area.

------------------------

A little point that I have to make to clear things up, any TV station can offer its signal for national distribution at any time. The difference is that the station has to own the national distribution rights to all the programming they are offering nationally. These could call themselves superstations, but they are not "statutory" superstations. This thread is discussing "statutory superstations".

See ya
Tony

 

[Lucky]

Thanks Tony, you really seem to be up on this superstation stuff. Thanks for sharing the information with us.

 

[SimpleSimon]

KWGN... I have no idea, this was beore the Rockeys came about. But KWGN was a large regional independent channel.

They were the FIRST independent to be available to consumers. They were part of the original Denver 5 that was uplinked to C-Band for people in rural areas.

Remember, this was even BEFORE "Primetime 24" came about.

 

[TNGTony]

WTBS is attributed as the first national "superstation" for cable TV dating to the mid 70s. This is how Ted baby made his billions. Before that, the "superstations" were regional and distributed mostly by terrestrial microwave links. I know that WWOR (then just WOR) was a "superstation" distributed by terrestrial microwave going back to the 60s.

See ya
Tony