Canadian locals eligible in the US.

[Clancy]

Are there any Canadian locals been made eligible for carriage on satellite providers in the US?
I know that cable companies carry across the border stations but was wondering if the law allows US satellite providers to do what Canadian providers are doing.

 

[CorpusJ]

Unfortunately US syndex laws do a lot to prevent cable and satellite networks from carrying Canadian station in the US. With the help of Wikipedia, here's a quick explanation...

Syndication exclusivity (also known as Syndex) is a Federal Law in the United States designed to protect a local television station's rights to syndicated television programs by granting exclusive rights to the station for that program in the local market, usually defined by a station's Nielsen DMA. As a result, any airings of the same program on cable networks and superstations must be blocked by the local cable company upon request from the local station. Broadcast television stations have the option of signing programming deals with or without syndex protection, but stand to have audiences significantly diluted in markets without protection.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syndication_exclusivity

With that said, it's highly unlikely your local affiliate will let a Canadian cable or satellite providers into the US cable/satellite market.

CBET in Windsor has a lineup different from the rest of CBC Ontario because they are considered in the syndication world to be part of the Detroit market. You'll never see The Simpsons or Frasier (which air in the afternoons on CBC) because Detroit stations own the rights those shows.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CBET

Of course, Canadian content is making its way to US television. Red Green was available on PBS stations. Also DaVinci's Inquest, is available in syndication (WGN carries the program among others.) In the fall, CTV's Corner Gas will also make its debut in the states. (WGN also has acquired rights to the program). C-SPAN will occasionally carry The National and major Canadian news events like election coverage.

I'm sure we'll never see the likes of Air Farce, 22 Minutes or the Mercer Report. Too many Americans are clueless about Canadian politics. That will have to stay reserved for those who live along the border or who subscribe to *C or BEV.

 

[Clancy]

Are any of the Canadian non over the airwave channels allowed to be used by US satellite providers?

I am thinking of the several news speciality channels and sports channels such as TSN or Sportsnet.

 

[Mr Tony]

The only ones I know of are OTA (CBC, CTV, Global, etc) and cable companies pick them up OTA and there is some rule that they have to be X miles from the border.

 

[Clancy]

Thanks for the replies guys.
Seeing as Dish Network shows BBC news channel and sports channels from other countries, I would think there would be an interest in having some Canadian news channels and for sure their sports specialty channels which seem to be more diverse that what is on Dish Network now.

 

[Mr Tony]

a fair amount of the sports on Sportsnet/TSN is stuff from US channels so now we're back to the syndex rules

Sportsnet is a regional sports channel

 

[Clancy]

a fair amount of the sports on Sportsnet/TSN is stuff from US channels so now we're back to the syndex rules

Sportsnet is a regional sports channel

Sportsnet is a regional sports channel that shows sporting events of national interest such as curling, mlb baseball, international hockey both men and women, winter alpine sports and lets not forget that great sport "Poker".
How did poker ever get classified as a sport?

TSN show plenty of programs not on US television.
Heck, I can recall watching the US womens hockey team win a rare gold medal against Canada a few years back that wasn't even carried nationally on US TV.
The Canadian network showed all the games as well, not just the finals.
At the moment, Canada has just finished showing the Spengler Cup from Switzerland which includes Canadian and American teams. They broadcast games every day including the playoffs. Nothing on US tv.
The world junior hockey championships are taking place. Where are people able to watch games everyday? Just from TSN.
This is just an example of having the ability to have diversification from your provider.
Luckily, I have the way and means to have this diversification by having Dish Network and Star Choice as satellite providers.
Others may not be as fortunate and it is for them that I would like to see TSN and Sportsnet available to them on Dish Network as an option.

 

[cablewithaview]

The Fight Network and The Miracle Network is available for sale in the US. We have plans later this year here and in South America as well concerning TFN. SA has been talked strongly as of late.
The cable networks (not talking about broadcast stations) in Canada, if they want, can ok their signal to be sold in the US, TFN being one of them. Not many tho will consider it because either they are afraid of copyright issues or that their isn't a market for it. From a few I have talked with, that's the reasons they give. If they only knew who all was really was watching Canadian TV.
If I find out who else would sale their signal to the US, I will post it.

 

[riffjim4069]

How did poker ever get classified as a sport?

..and Bowling, and NASCAR, and Bass Fishing? Seriously, I added *C "Essentials" to supplement my desire to follow my hometeam sports (Detroit) teams and to satisfy my hockey fix. It's worth $35 a month even though we do not watch much Canadian programming. We would consider *C as our sole provider if they offered the Lifetime channel, offered a decent HD DVR with OTA.

 

[icstephen]

Its funny I canned D* in December and went SC only and we have gotten more and more away from American content (we actually watch mostly Brit content) with Canadian second. I though we would miss D*, but even my wife doesnt miss it and she watches allot of the women type stuff (which we get allot of with the packages we have) and I'm saving the extra $65.00 I was paying D* every month.

 

[cablewithaview]

I like StarChoice, we thought we would miss Dish or DirecTV but we didn't. The kids are use to Nick, Disney and Cartoon and it throws them off a little.

 

[HDTVFanAtic]

Are any of the Canadian non over the airwave channels allowed to be used by US satellite providers?

I am thinking of the several news speciality channels and sports channels such as TSN or Sportsnet.

TSN and/or Sportsnets pay rights fees to the team/league for a specific region/country.

That does not include the USA.

They would have to purchase the rights to USA distribution if they wanted to do that - and that would probably make them loose all their US Based Programming as they could not outbid the US Networks.

The BBC uses their own content and thus does not have to pay for rights fees.

 

[Clancy]

Thanks all for your informative replies.