Dish HD Locals Update
- Thread starter Scott Greczkowski
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I wasn't home at the time of the reinstall and didn't know they were going to remove the 61.5 dish until after it was done. In hindsight....
It is my understanding that after the new bird goes up in March it will be located at 61.5, and that then Dish will have additional spot beams available, and that one of those beams will can cover the New Orleans area. My question is if they do put New Orleans's HD locals on one of the 61.5 spot beam will I need a new dish, or a new LNB to receive them? I currently have a Dish 1000, and I get satellite 110, 119, and 129, so i think I would need something new to get the 61.5 spot beam. However, using my simple mind, which is uneducated about the workings of satellite service delivery, I was thinking that since the spot beam is aimed at New Orleans then I would not have to have a dish pointed at 61.5. I guess my theory is rather than my dish pointing at 61.5 in effect the spot beam will have the satellite aim it's signal at my dish. Am I right, or wrong, or a little right, or what.
E12 is already up at 61.5 right now but is not in spotbeam mode. AMC-14 will allow the bird to switch over and kick into full spot beam mode. There is a beam that points to the Jackson, MS and New Orleans, LA area. If the locals are put here then yes you will need a dish at 61.5. Your Dish 1000 can not see 61.5 from its current location.
Digi, do you think Dish will move spots or adjust them? Or is that old map we see frequently set in stone?
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Assuming DISH is already carrying a particular DMA in SD, is there an additional dialog/agreement/negotiation with the local networks needed to carry the HD versions? Or is it simply a capacity/spotbeam issue for DISH? In other words, can a local channel agree to allow DISH to carry their SD signals, but hold out on their HD?
Yep. See all the discussion about Lin TV. You won't find a Lin HD property on ANY satellite provider. They are asking too much $. They have the SD properties up.
I'm not following you. What do you mean by "Lin TV"?
DISH and DirectTV carry both SD and HD for local broadcast networks of many cities (i.e. Dallas, NY, LA, etc). My question is do they have separate contracts with, for example, the owner of the ABC station in Dallas to carry WFAA...one for WFAA-SD and one for WFAA-HD.
Let me put it this way:
Do I bitch at my local Cincinnati stations to hurry up and strike an "HD deal" with DISH so I can get Cincinnati networks HD? (SD is currently available)
---OR---
Do I bitch at DISH network to hurry up and launch more birds so they have the bandwidth to include Cincy-HD locals, which are simply waiting for an E* bird to grab them?
DISH and DirectTV carry both SD and HD for local broadcast networks of many cities (i.e. Dallas, NY, LA, etc). My question is do they have separate contracts with, for example, the owner of the ABC station in Dallas to carry WFAA...one for WFAA-SD and one for WFAA-HD.
Let me put it this way:
Do I bitch at my local Cincinnati stations to hurry up and strike an "HD deal" with DISH so I can get Cincinnati networks HD? (SD is currently available)
---OR---
Do I bitch at DISH network to hurry up and launch more birds so they have the bandwidth to include Cincy-HD locals, which are simply waiting for an E* bird to grab them?
The answer is, it depends.
The analog signal carriage agreements are separate from the digital signal carriage agreements. Some station owners (e.g. Lin Broadcasting) can and do demand more for the digital signal rebroadcast rights.
And, Dish is also resource constrained now. There are only so many satellite transponders, and they can only provide so many channels. The same transponder that can show 14 analog (SD) channels in a market can only do 6 digital (HD) channels.
But for WFAA-DT, you need to bitch at Lin. Dish already has a transponder for the other DFW network affiliates.
LIN TV is a company that owns numerous TV stations all over the US. They have a reputation of being difficult to deal with in regards to their digital channels.
No one here knows.... IMO, many of these contracts were in place before digital channels existed and some stations modified their contracts with providers like Dish to allow carriage of the digital channel(s). Others said "no, the contract only applies to the analog channel".
"hurry up and launch" more satellites ? Now be realistic.... If they told you "okay, we'll do that", do you realize it takes *years* to design, build, and launch a satellite ? As for the local stations, they may have agreements in place with Dish but Dish doesn't have the capacity. Or, maybe only half of the local stations have agreements. Dish would rather carry *all* of the major networks, i.e. NBC, CBS, ABC, FOX, vs one or two. I know they'll carry three out of four in some markets. When they do that, that really puts the pressure on the "lone" station.
Well I am not Digi, but the map is somewhat flexible. The lines were based on prelaunch data (probably a year before the launch) when E&D were trying to merge and the future of VOOM was being pointed out as a competitor to E&D. The only real way to see what was actually launched and how close it is to that map is to go into the FCC database, and see what was filed.
It is assumed that the picture is fairly close to what was eventually launched, but the lines of the circles are not rigid. They represent a certain fall off of signal given expected error correction and dish size. A larger dish would be able to see the spot outside the contour line. A Dish500 could have a lot more range. VOOM was originally touted as having a small dish size, one would assume Dish would specify an appropriate dish size given what they expect the error rates they will run with (Dish has been running a very conservative error correction rate compared to what VOOM ran with). Areas of DMAs outside of the lines could for example be specified to have a Dish500 instead of a Dish300.
Perhaps someone could be really ambitious and go get the FCC data, and compute the coverage of the spots. It is in an unfriendly format, essentially the longitue/lattitude of the center point of each beam, and the EIRP of the transmitter.
They could add all they need *tomorrow*. Then again, when has Dish ever hit a date they targeted ??
If IIRC, the Charlie Chat and Tech Info shows state more HD is coming in March, 2008 and June (or July?) 2008. I'm a believer. Plus, I want PBS in HD, for their original productions of classics such as the Agatha Christie mysteries and music shows.
Friendly regards,
Fitzie
Friendly regards,
Fitzie
I almost wonder if they are waiting for the launch of AMC-14 to be done. While they may not be waiting on the actually satellite to be in position (which I do not expect until May), they could be waiting to be sure it at least gets launched without blowing up. They might want to be sure that they will have the extra capacity on the way before they commit to turning off a ton of national capacity by turning on the spot beams on E12/R1.
At the end of this month they should get the 2 Sky Angel TPs back. Plus there are 2 more TPs being used for locals that they might move to spot. So, they should have 4 before the satellite and 4 more once the satellite gets in position. Then they will have to move more internationals off for more space.
At the end of this month they should get the 2 Sky Angel TPs back. Plus there are 2 more TPs being used for locals that they might move to spot. So, they should have 4 before the satellite and 4 more once the satellite gets in position. Then they will have to move more internationals off for more space.
I just don't understand the locals getting paid to retransmit their HD, or SD, for that matter. It seems that by doing that, they're shooting themselves in the foot. I live in a market that has 2 LIN stations, but because of location / distances and other obstacles, I cannot recieve them by antenna. The way I see it, Dish & Direct are actually doing them a service by offering a "repeater" system for those stations to be available to their viewers who cannot recieve them. This gets their customers' ads out to people who cannot normally view them and my generate more revenue, thus allowing them to advertise more, creating more revenue for the stations... Heck, the DBS companies should be charging them.
Another thing that comes to mind is the SHVA of '96 that gave the local stations rights to deny / grant waivers for reception of Networks over satellite... to me, that killed their right to require outlandish payment for rebroadcasts of their signal....
Sorry for the rant
I agree with your rant 100%. In fact I'll go father. Why in blazes do we have to pay for any channels with advertising out the wazoo? Yeah, I understand we'll have to pay something for all that satellite infrastructure. But additional payments to content providers who advertise? Nuts to that.
In fact I'll go father. Why in blazes do we have to pay for any channels with advertising out the wazoo? Yeah, I understand we'll have to pay something for all that satellite infrastructure. But additional payments to content providers who advertise? Nuts to that.
The TV companies like LIN TV are trying to set a precedant of getting paid for these digital channels *now* before it's too late. When the analog shutoff arrives and they've only got "antenna" customers, they'll be in a world of hurt. Estimates of OTA-only households is in the 10-17% range. 80-90% of their viewers are from cable or satellite ! I say don't negotiate with them because come Feb 2009, they'll be begging to be carried when their numbers drop like a rock !
