I personally think that in every market, Dish should carry CW, and that it should be included in PTAT.

[TheKrell]

...there is nothing stopping them from splitting out more channels before recording them, if they wanted to do so.

Do "we" really know this? For the H3 this is certainly true; the H3 is fast enough (to record 18 channels at a time?). But for the 3-tuner Hoppers, I assumed that there were technical hardware limitations to "recording the whole transponder" or "splitting out 4 channels on the fly".

 

[charlesrshell]

Do "we" really know this? For the H3 this is certainly true; the H3 is fast enough (to record 18 channels at a time?). But for the 3-tuner Hoppers, I assumed that there were technical hardware limitations to "recording the whole transponder" or "splitting out 4 channels on the fly".

Hopper 3 - 19 channels same time with PTAT + OTA adapter 21 channels.

 

[TheKrell]

Hopper 3 - 19 channels same time with PTAT + OTA adapter 21 channels.

By that accounting, and assuming crodrules is correct, then we should say 15 independent channels + 2 OTA channels plus whatever the number of channels/transpoder which last I looked was 8. That's 25.

 

[Howard Simmons]

I agree. It is pretty much the only local channel that I watch on any kind of a regular basis.

But yet their ratings are in the dumpster.

 

[pattykay]

But yet their ratings are in the dumpster.

There hasn't been a whole lot of new content all fall, due to COVID-19 production delays. They just started showing new episodes of many series last month.

 

[odbrv]

What is the relative viewership of CW compared to the big four? I think 5 stations would fit on one transponder...

The Most Watched TV Channels of the world (By average number of viewers in 2017)​

1. CBS (7,996,000)
2. NBC (7,284,000)
3. HBO (Premium) (7,260,000)
4. ABC (5,592,000)
5. Fox (4,733,000)
6. Fox News Channel (2,423,000)
7. ESPN (1,904,000)
8. Univision (1,666,000)
9. USA Network (1,662,000)
10. MSNBC (1,615,000)
11. The CW (1,590,000)
12. HGTV (1,530,000)

 

[edisonprime]

The Most Watched TV Channels of the world (By average number of viewers in 2017)​

1. CBS (7,996,000)
2. NBC (7,284,000)
3. HBO (Premium) (7,260,000)
4. ABC (5,592,000)
5. Fox (4,733,000)
6. Fox News Channel (2,423,000)
7. ESPN (1,904,000)
8. Univision (1,666,000)
9. USA Network (1,662,000)
10. MSNBC (1,615,000)
11. The CW (1,590,000)
12. HGTV (1,530,000)

I thought I heard Fox News’ ratings had gone down? Edit: Oh that post is talking about 2017.

 

[Jim5506]

It is not unusual for a spot beam to cover multiple DMAs, therefore that TP on the satellite is carrying more than the 4 major channels, maybe 8 or 12 majors plus all the other channels in the DMAs for that spot beam. I'm sure if it were popular enough other channels could be added to PTAT but that would necessitate another watcher for each new channel to mark commercial beginnings and ends - $$$$. When this all began the encoders were not nearly as efficient as they are now, so Dish has been packing more and more HD channels into each available TP on the sats.

I have suggested that Dish rearrange non-network channels on the satellites so that they could also all be recorded en mass, perhaps news channels or sports channels or children's programming, etc. could be recorded with one tuner instead of multiple tuners and the user could choose which ones to watch more easily, perhaps even watch something that was not planned to be watched.

 

[pattykay]

I'm sure if it were popular enough other channels could be added to PTAT but that would necessitate another watcher for each new channel to mark commercial beginnings and ends - $$$$.

Add PBS to PTAT instead. Problem solved.

 

[edisonprime]

Add PBS to PTAT instead. Problem solved.

Sure, but most of the PBS stations have a vastly different schedule. I’m not sure if the shows on their primetime lineup should actually be considered “primetime” because most of the PBS stations being so different.

 

[jerryez]

But if you use another tuner to record other transponders, you might find many people do not want to give up a tuner, if they do not like the channels on that tuner.

 

[pattykay]

But if you use another tuner to record other transponders, you might find many people do not want to give up a tuner, if they do not like the channels on that tuner.

If they don't like any of the channels on that tuner, then they do not have to enable PTAT for that tuner. This leaves that tuner available for whatever else they want to record. That is the way it works now. If you do not have PTAT enabled, then Tuner 3 on an old Hopper or Hopper With Sling is available for recording any other channel. The same thing applies to Tuner 2 on the Hopper Duo. It can be used to record multiple network channels at the same time. If it is not being used for any of the network channels, then it can be used for something else. The same thing would apply to Tuner 16 on the Hopper 3, except that very few people would even use all of those tuners, in order to run into a conflict in the first place. In every case, PTAT adds recording options. It does not take anything away if you don't use it.