But the advent of digital television transmission got me thinking; what if the most watched cable channels were available over the air.
WNEP offers Antenna TV on 16.2. I find myself watching it often. But what if ABC affiliates were able to transmit other ABC properties like ESPN on its sub-channels. What if WYOU, a CBS affiliate could offer CNN. WBRE, the local NBC affiliate could offer MSNBC. Fox 56 could offer FOX News.
WVIA offers CreateTV on channel 44.3. It's a network dedicated to cooking, travel and how-to shows. It's not bad.With Congress threatening funding for PBS, why couldn't WVIA offer a popular cable channel on one of its sub-channels. Sell the local commercial availabilities and that could help pay the bills.
Why couldn't a local entrepreneur put a station on the air that simply ran popular channels that are currently only available on cable or satellite franchises.
There's plenty of space on the broadcast spectrum. It's time that some of it gets used to offer programming free of a cable or a dish.
3 comments:
This is an interesting idea that is DOA. I interviewed Bill Kelly on this point a number of years ago and he said no commercials would ever run on WVIA or any subchannel.
PERIOD.
Commercials would kill donations, he said.
Rich Mates
One more thing....
Comcast owns NBC and a large number of cable channels (E!, Versus, CNBC, MSNBC, USA, BRAVO, et al)
These are CABLE or Satellite channels, not over the air. Comcast wants more people on cable, not on over the air.
Forget broadcast sports like NCAA basketball..It's moving to cable.
I heard there are websites where you'll get a list of all of the available stations, analog and digital, the distance they are from you, the direction they are from you and - in the case of digital channels - the actual channel they broadcast on. The color code provided matches that on the boxes of various antennas. It is only a guide. You may need more or less antenna depending on a host of variables, including terrain, nearby structures and so forth.
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