Satellite TV putting the squeeze on WYMT-TV

[KG4KBU]

AZARD — Becky Campbell watched Hazard’s WYMT-TV every day when she lived in Viper, Ky., and enjoyed its news and sports coverage about her home southeastern Kentucky.
Satellite TV putting the squeeze on WYMT-TV » Local News » Daily Independent (Ashland, KY)

Shame on you Dish Network and Directv. This Station was voted to have the best newscast in kentucky for a few years now and got awards for doing so and you all want to NOT carry it. What a disgrace.

 

[whatchel1]

AZARD — Becky Campbell watched Hazard’s WYMT-TV every day when she lived in Viper, Ky., and enjoyed its news and sports coverage about her home southeastern Kentucky.
Satellite TV putting the squeeze on WYMT-TV » Local News » Daily Independent (Ashland, KY)

Shame on you Dish Network and Directv. This Station was voted to have the best newscast in kentucky for a few years now and got awards for doing so and you all want to NOT carry it. What a disgrace.

The article is from 2009. Didn't see any thing in the article that would give a good reason for E* to carry it. They already carry a CBS affiliate for the area. Problem is not E* but FCC/TV station DMA problem.

 

[Tampa8]

I have to agree with whatchel1.
You are making an assumption they can carry it if they even wanted to now. The article is not clear, but if that station can not be seen via an antenna at a given location outside it's DMA, then it isn't classified as being able to be carried by Direct TV or Dish if that network is already available. It would have to be claimed to be watched by people in that DMA. Dish may not be able to carry it even if it wanted to. Cable has different criteria and possibly could.
In addition, it is very true, even if you don't want to believe it, that Dish has little bandwidth to play with. I don't think carrying a duplicate network trumps carrying national channels or more sports in HD. There's many of us who would like to get a neighboring channel from another DMA, Dish (or Direct) just can't do that for everyone. (sometimes legally can not, sometimes because of bandwidth)

 

[Juan]

Is it a full power station? If so they should select MUST CARRY rather than BE PAYED to be carried..but if its a low power station thay are at the mercy of direct and dish

 

[Tampa8]

Is it a full power station? If so they should select MUST CARRY rather than BE PAYED to be carried..but if its a low power station thay are at the mercy of direct and dish

Juan, not in this case. It is an out of DMA channel, that has all it's networks. The only chance would be significantly viewed, but I don't know if it even is considered that, and I don't think Dish is doing, or not sure it can do, significantly viewed.

 

[SamCdbs]

Actually the channel has no DMA. The case always has been in that part of the world, due to terrain, cable or dish was necessary to receive TV at all.

The channel is CBS and co-owned by Gray Television) with WKYT, CBS in Lexington. Its .2 signal is a repeater of WKYT, the two differ only in local news and a few syndicated programs. People that can receive it OTA are mostly in the Lexington market, others in Huntington-Charleston (where Gray owns the NBC station) or the Tenneessee Tri-Cites, as cable or dish are needed to receive any other station, or that station itself more than 20 or 30 miles from Hazard. Esentually the station's only function is to cover local news, as the number of people who would actually watch TV OTA is tiny (since you would get only the one station OTA, and cable TV was a part of life there since day one).

It is not in Gray's interest to do anything to get the station, as it would just take viewers away from other Gray stations. Enough and Hazard might become a single station TV market, like Parkersburg, WV, where the presence of that single station (supplemented on cable by the Huntington-Charleston or Columbus stations) removes counties that would naturally be in the H-C market, making the market smaller. National ad buyers don't know, or care to know, stuff like that, they just pay $X for DMA Y.

 

[Mr Tony]

WYMT is part of the Lexington market

But the rule in regards to must carry is rather simple
If more than one affiliate of the same network is in a market (DMA) unless they are licensed to different states only one is considered Must carry. Now Dish and DIrect can carry more than one like the following examples
WDAZ & WDAY in the Fargo/Grand Forks Market. Both are ABC and DAZ is a "semi-satellite" of DAY but has their own programming. Both are carried
There are 2 ABC's in the Lincoln/Grand Island/Hastings Nebraska market. Both are carried

until earlier this year we had a situation where both were carried even though one was a 98% copy. KBJR (NBC) in Duluth (but licensed to Superior, WI) and KRII (Chisholm) were both carried even though the only difference was a 5-7 minute news part each night....and a commercial once in a while. But since one was licensed to WI and one to MN BOTH were under must carry. Both D* & E* have dropped KRII for the CW subchannel on KBJR.

So WYMT could be carried on both providers...they just have to get a feed to Lexington
Cable gives that area (Hazard and the surrounding area) both WYMT & WKYT

 

[Mr Tony]

Hate to say it but Gray next time retrans comes around could be dinks and say "carry WYMT or you dont get WKYT" but it all goes back to getting a good signal from Hazard over to the pop in Lexington

 

[Mr Tony]

The article is from 2009.

I show the article from 11/26/11

 

[whatchel1]

I show the article from 11/26/11

The article was dated then but it was talking about the 2009 info and gave nothing newer than that in it.