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mmrf
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Posted: Wed Jan 28th, 2009 02:03 am |
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Saturday, January 17, 2009 | 5:11 p.m. CST BY Michael Amantea COLUMBIA — Columbia and Boone County Mediacom customers will soon notice some channels missing from their cable lineups. They will be losing the St. Louis stations.
The two stations in question are the KSDK NBC affiliate on Mediacom channel 4 and the KETC PBS affiliate on Mediacom channel 19. Mediacom will still carry the local NBC and PBS stations, which carry all the same network programming as the St. Louis stations.
Randy Hollis, a spokesman for Mediacom, said the changes are scheduled to coincide with the Feb. 17 shift to all-digital broadcasting and cannot be avoided. According to Hollis, though digital signals are much clearer than their analog counterparts, they do not travel as far. So when stations in the St. Louis area make their government-mandated switch to all-digital broadcasting, Mediacom will no longer be able to receive enough signal to carry the stations for local customers.
Terri Gates, a public relations manager for KETC, disagrees with Hollis's reasoning. "We would prefer to continue to broadcast via Mediacom in Columbia," Gates said. "We have a very loyal viewer base in the area."
Gates spoke with the PBS station's chief engineer, who was unaware of any transition-related issue that would prevent Mediacom from carrying the station.
"Our signal is strong enough to be carried in Hannibal," Gates said. "I don't know of any plans to drop us there, so I don't see why we can't be broadcast to Columbia as well."
According to Gates, KETC has non-PBS programming that the local KMOS simply cannot afford to carry, like the BBC World Service.
Lynn Beall, the general manager of the KSDK St. Louis NBC affiliate, said she was unaware of any plans to discontinue broadcasting through Mediacom in Columbia, and she would have to look into the issue.
The change could go unnoticed by many casual viewers. Currently, the signal of both PBS stations is weak and hard to watch over local Mediacom. According to Hollis, once the digital transition takes place Mediacom will broadcast the digital signal for KMOS, which should come in crystal clear. Additionally, almost all programming, except local news, has to be blocked out from the St. Louis NBC affiliate and replaced with infomercials because of non-duplication rights. The only sporting events that KSDK broadcasts are Cardinal’s baseball games that are not picked up by Fox Sports Midwest.
Hollis says that in place of these stations, Mediacom plans to relocate ION, a network that shows mostly syndicated programming and movies, to the soon-to-be-vacant channel 19. The channel will be available to all basic cable subscribers; ION is currently Mediacom channel 46 and only available to customers with expanded basic cable or better.
Mediacom will also be adding the new WGN America HD station to its family cable lineup.
“It is our goal to offer a robust high definition lineup to our customers at no additional charge, and they can look forward to additional HD stations in the coming months," Hollis said.
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gomizzoutigers
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Posted: Sat Jan 31st, 2009 07:05 am |
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More than likely the problem is that the OTA receive site located about 10-15 miles NW of Hermann (near Americus) is not even in the DTV receive area for KETC, and would be on the fringe for KSDK-DT. Add in the cost of maintaining the next microwave hop NW of Fulton, and Mediacom can wipe out a lot of fixed costs in one fell swoop.
Last edited on Sat Jan 31st, 2009 07:07 am by gomizzoutigers
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TheColonel
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Posted: Sat Jan 31st, 2009 07:43 pm |
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| Of course, there would be nothing to prevent Mediacom from establishing a closer "pick up" tower for the St Louis signals. The signals are grandfathered in and probably still required by franchise ordinance (unless deregulation says otherwise). The lack of good OTA reception has long been a problem with importing out state signals to Mid Missouri. Maintaining a microwave system to receive and redistribute signals is costly. This may be just the excuse Mediacom needs to dump St. Louis. I doubt that duplicate network stations are a big selling point for potential cable customers as it once was.
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gomizzoutigers
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Posted: Tue Feb 3rd, 2009 03:14 am |
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But I am guessing that all the franchising ordinances got thrown out the window by the Missour legislature last year. Video providers now can come in under a statewide franchise and no longer have to meet the local requirements for community access channels, equipment, free serivice, etc., that were in city/county ordinances.
Last edited on Tue Feb 3rd, 2009 03:15 am by gomizzoutigers
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TheColonel
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Posted: Tue Feb 3rd, 2009 12:43 pm |
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| You're right about the statewide franchise law. However, the cable business is still very competitive with other pay services such as satellite delivery , etc. That being said, there is a national trend for cable companies to use the digital transition as an excuse to drop imported signals. It's happening all over the country. Its sad since many of these signals provided bread and butter for the early start up cable companies including the systems in Jefferson City and Columbia.
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