ION
- Thread starter Howard Simmons
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For the answer to that, you may need to think back to the way things were before the previous ION dispute. Prior to that, Dish carried both east and west national ION feeds, and they were both SD-only. Although ION showed up on the local channel number in the local package for markets that have an affiliate, the Dish-delivered feed was not the actual affiliate, but rather a re-map of the appropriate national feed for that time zone.
So, when Dish started preparing for that dispute with the national ION feeds, that is when the actual local feeds started being uplinked, and markets with an HD ION affiliate gained ION HD on Dish for the first time. This is likely because, since the national feed contract was about to expire, ION elected must-carry for their affiliates. This way, their affiliates take up as much bandwidth as possible. This was possibly in the hope that Dish would need the bandwidth desperately enough for other things, that Dish would quickly reach a deal with ION to put things back the way they were before. Instead, when the contract for the national feed was finally renewed, only the eastern feed returned, and it remained SD-only. Apparently, the western feed (which had been Western-Arc-only prior to the dispute) was no longer necessary, since every western market with an affiliate now had their actual affiliate in HD.
So, with the regulations for satellite-delivered locals about to change again, due to the STELAR renewal, it may be possible that the rules for fill-in distants have been expanded to include smaller entities such as ION, in addition to the major networks. In that case, every market should be able to get an actual affiliate (in HD in most cases) making the national SD feed completely unnecessary.
By the way, ION is not the only broadcast entity to have multiple disputes with Dish, involving the addition of the local affiliates when the national feed was removed. The same thing happened with Daystar. Whenever the national feed was removed, the local Daystar affiliates elected must-carry. However, in that case, the local Daystar affiliates were removed when the deal was finally struck to restore the national feed.
I get my local ION station only via an OTA antenna.
Then I will not mess with for only an occasional show. It is labelled as HD in the Dish guide, but it is not. The only local ION station I get is via an OTA antenna.
Then I will not mess with for only an occasional show. It is labelled as HD in the Dish guide, but it is not. The only local ION station I get is via an OTA antenna.
I can say that I liked it a lot better when it was PAX. It is funny that after all this time, many affiliates still have call letters that reflect the PAX branding. (WVPX, for example) I guess they couldn't come up with enough plays on the ION name to make it worth changing the call letters again.
All OTA channels are listed as HD whether the content is HD or not. That is because the channels themselves transmit in 1080i or 720p, some channels with multiple sub-channels..
Well we can close out this thread Dish and ION made a deal. They're back on. 
Of course not. They are networks, and like all other broadcast networks they may or may not be carried in a given area, and if they are, may or may not be on a subchannel or main channel.
Well we can close out this thread Dish and ION made a deal. They're back on.
It would have been better if it was in HD. Why isn't it in HD?
You're not missing much. The schedule is pretty much repeats of Blue Bloods, Chicago PD, NCIS: LA, Law and Order: SVU, Law and Order: CI, Criminal Minds and overnight infomercials.
I'm the self proclaimed worlds biggest Blue Bloods fan and I like the early seasons of Criminal Minds but these shows are also on another 3 or 4 channels.
I thought that was just so Dish would not have to keep track of which subchannels are SD or HD. Providing OTA guide information is not Dish's primary business.
Probably to avoid taking viewers (and ad dollars) away from the local affiliates. If the national feed were competing directly against the local affiliates by providing an HD feed, that would likely lead to Dish being forced to blackout the national feed in markets with a local affiliate. Also, a national HD feed would use up more bandwidth than the SD feed.
Having said all that, the last time I checked, Directv was still mapping down the national feeds of ION to their local packages the same way that I described Dish's practice with ION earlier. This means that Directv carries both ION East and West, with an HD feed for ION East. Of course, that also means that Directv subscribers in west coast markets only get the SD feed in their local package. So, if they do not subscribe to a high enough basic package to get ION East HD, they are completely shut out of ION HD, just because they are on the west coast.
It is a nice Christmas present from Dish.Well we can close out this thread Dish and ION made a deal. They're back on.
Subchannels, which was the question posed, most certainly are not. The fact that the networks listed are (as you note) really should have been an adequate answer regarding if they are subchannels, which again, they may or may not be carried on subchannels in any given area. Which would be irrelevant because (sing it with me) Dish does not carry subchannels and if the national feed is removed, those without an antenna or other provider are SOL.
Well, if we are going to get nit-picky, Dish most certainly does carry subchannels, in Alaska, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, and the US Virgin Islands. (This is a special requirement for satellite delivery of locals in "non-contiguous states" which is also applied to PR and USVI because they are non-contiguous, even though they are not states. This was part of a trade-off for these areas, since the same law also banned the importation of distant networks to these areas. And for those who were wondering, this was put in place long before Dish got hit with the distant network injunction, and applies equally to all satellite carriers.)
As far as markets in the contiguous US, Dish may carry subchannels on a case-by-case basis, although this would usually only happen if the subchannel happens to be affiliated with one of the major networks. So, a blanket statement of "Dish does not carry subchannels" would be completely inaccurate.
Metv is only available in markets without it...not like a network at all
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Sent from my SM-G950U using the SatelliteGuys app!
There are a lot of sub channels that are not carried by Dish, unless a local market station runs in on their main channel. We do not have Decades, Heroes & Icon's, Movies, RTV, THIS TV, Start TV, Antenna TV (My most wanted), to name a few.
For purposes of some of the copyright licenses necessary for satellite or cable delivery of local channels, the term "network" only applies to the four major networks (ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX) or even only to the three major networks (ABC, CBS, NBC) for purposes of which standard to use to qualify a station for the Significantly Viewed List, for example. I prefer to use the term "broadcast entity" to avoid confusion.
