Macon, GA - HDTV - Page 63

WGXA will probably hold off turning off service until 11:59:59PM on Monday at the earliest, IF no deal is reached on Monday. It is not a great idea to make a significant percentage of your local viewers angry during a holiday weekend. WGXA's website FAQs about this are very self serving. Dishnetwork's charge for local channels is to offset the cost of implementing and maintaining the technology used to get local broadcast signals to the subscriber. Fancy new satellites with this capability cost money. So those who wanted local broadcast channels would pay for transporting them. The subscribers are not paying for content, when they agree to pay for the local channels , they are paying the cost of transportation. WGXA should be happy to have more eyeballs looking at their ads.

They didn't. It was off when I got up this morning.

Dish will lose some subscribers in the Macon area, WGXA will lose some viewers.

I'd imagine Florida fans are pretty annoyed right now with the Outback Bowl on ABC... then there'll be more tomorrow night when they can't see who shot Paul Young

I doubt anybody's going to get cable or DirecTV installed today or tomorrow, but I could be wrong there.

Well, they have not updated the WGXA website with the fact of the cutoff. And the DishNetwork site has no information in the news section. DishNetwork cannot afford to loose in this contest. They are the number two satellite TV provider. They are never going to get to be number one by raising rates to pay for the WGXAs of this country. DirectTV deployed a massive amount of people to get new subscribers over the past two months. DishNetwork has to have some alternative value proposition to offer the public that costs less per month than DirecTV to get the growth they need. WGXA may get something from DishNetwork, but I bet it will be less than the amount per subscriber they got from DirecTV.

I had the same blue scrolling message on Channel 25 while watching Rudolph's Shiny New Year.

It appears that No Agreement Reached according to the Telegraph. Looks like there will be no more negotiations. Echostar will be providing the programming from WSB and WAGA.

If it wasn't for Register of WPGA complaining about ABC's programming, the network would still be on that station.

I had Dish once back in my old hometown for the pop-up camper. The Dish tripod and receiver was bought at Camping World. Months later, we dropped it since my folks can't afford it. We been getting calls from Dish that we owed them money. Ridiculous. Since I moved to Central Georgia, I can't subscribe to them anymore.

So I subscribed to DirecTV, but their service was poor not that we had snow covering the Slimline dish, I had to wait a day or so for a technician to replace the cables. In return, they took $50 off my next monthly bill for one missed appointment.

Now, next month, rates on the DirecTV packages (Except for the Premier) will go up. $1 more for the leased receivers.

I will be getting a new HD flat screen and I might be planning on streaming my favorite shows and movies from the laptop to the new HD screen or at least, if willing, try to subscribe to their HD package.

I wonder when does DirecTV's contract with WGXA expire? I hope they don't do the same thing as they did to WPGA.

I can't post the link to the news article on the retransmission dispute because I need 3 posts before doing it.

Dish Network would only be able to turn on WSB or WAGA in zip codes where the stations are considered "significantly viewed." While WSB was considered SV in Bibb county at one time, WPGA got a waiver for the network non-dupe rules in 1999... as WGXA did before them. I don't see where WGXA has gotten a waiver since taking ABC back, but the original waiver may still apply.

The FCC's site still does list WSB as SV in Bibb, though. It may be in other counties in the Macon ADI, but I didn't check closely. It is NOT SV in Houston county.

It seems that a mix of WSB, WAGA and WTVM could help fill in the gaps, but there's not a distant (Columbus or Atlanta) Fox affiliate that's SV in all of the Macon ADI.

Hello all I've been reading this thread and it's quite a lot to take in, learnt a few things.

I bought the RCA ANT1450 and received quite a good number of local Macon stations but no WMAZ. I've learnt here that WMAZ is on VHF while other Macon stations on UHF. I just returned it and thinking of buying the ANT1650 but needed to get some clarifications... hopefully.

Due to my living arrangement outdoor antenna is not an for me. Can anybody recommend a good indoor antenna that will enable me to receive WMAZ along with other Macon channels? It seems some UHF/VHF combo atennas are stronger on the UHF side but weaker on the VHF side which explains why WMAZ is not coming through.

Something else I picked up here but not sure of is that some seem to be saying that WMAZ is on channel 4 and not on channel 3. So does that mean if I hit channel 4 on my TV remote I will receive WMAZ?

thanks!

I use the Terk TV 5 indoor amplified antenna. Its good for stations up to 30 miles away. I live in Macon and it picks up channel 29-1, 29-2, and 29-3 from Cochran that is 30 miles from where I live. Be sure to do a channel scan after you hook it up. Channel 13 is on channel 13 so you need to do a channel scan so that your tuner can find all the channels. That maybe why you can't pick up WMAZ. Also go to www.tvfool.com and type in your info to see how far you are away from the stations. I get 15 channels where I live. OTA HD channels are awesome. I'll never go back to pay TV.

http://www.amazon.com/Terk-Low-Profi...4655773&sr=1-1

Thanks for the info.
I actually did a channel scan about 4 times but still did not receive WMAZ.
I got about 9 channels or so.
I'll try the Terk and see if my luck improves.

anderson,
It's not the prettiest antenna, but you can build a good one from a 2x4 and wire clothes hangers. It's supposed to be UHF only, but I catch all the local stations with it. I'm at 49 and 96 in WR, and have no issues with any of the stations.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EWQhlmJTMzw
Cost me about $10 to make. It's FUGLY but works!

well guys as of early this morning both channels are back on Dish, i guess they reached a agreement after all

http://www.newscentralga.com/news/lo...115157134.html

And in HD.

I wonder how much more it is going to cost DISH subscribers per month? I hope someone is brave enough to allow the critical details to be dripped to an on line journalist. I do not want a leak because the corporate clowns who created this mess are trained to spot leaks. A slow to medium drip might get passed them. Better still would be seepage which is very slow, but is very quiet.

DISH Network isn't going to change the rates, in any individual market, just because of the retrans costs. They charge a fixed rate for each package.
If anything, they could jaclk up their overall rates across the board, and try to blame it on the broadcasters.

But remember, DISH (like most of those giant media groups) has money to burn...they can spend a billion dollars on purchasing a competitor, but can't "eat" a few dollars in increased programming costs.

After my last post, I got to thinking....
Have the Cable and satellite companies ever made a big, public stink about a rate increase for any other channels, except the broadcast stations and the channels affiliated with the broadcast networks?

Or, do those channels still get the rate they got twenty orr thirty years ago?

Ken English, I do not remember anything being public about the pure cable content networks cost to the satellite and cable companies. The problems dealing with the OTA broadcast stations came about over many things that the pure cable/sat content networks do not deal with. For example, the Food Network does not deal with local sports blackouts due to a stadium not being filled. There are no Designated Market Areas for the Food Network. Showing distant signals is not an issue for the Food Network.

The fights have intensified because the big national OTA networks(ABC, CBS, NBC, and Fox) see the money gotten by the locally owned OTA broadcast stations through retransmission consent and they want some of it now. The big networks used to rely on the advertising dollars from ads shown during daytime and primetime. But they think they cannot get that amount of money from advertising in today's economy. So in order to keep the expensive popular shows running, they are going after a money from the local broadcast stations. This causes the locals to want even more money on a per subscriber basis from the cable/sat companies. The cable companies have always argued that the locals should rely only on local ad dollars for income and any money they get from the big national networks (ABC, CBS, NBC, and Fox) as part of daytime and primetime national ad revenue sharing. The cable companies provided more viewers than the locals would otherwise have, and that increase should drive the ad rates the locals get for advertising. And now you have the big 4 networks wanting to deal directly with the satellite and cable companies for a per subscriber payment.

Now to the above volatile mixture add ala carte demands from many directions and possible rate regulation. The cable and satellite companies had enough. Let the existing deals lapse. Let the local OTAs do without the additional viewers. ATSC OTA DTV is a failure compared to NTSC OTA in some areas due to lousy signal reception, so potential viewers switching to OTA was limited. Forget local TV "news" coverage, that is what local OTA radio and local newspapers are for. If that is not good enough, the towns can pay a town crier to go around announcing the news.

The cable companies and the big 4 networks have come to really hate local OTA stations. They would do away with OTA in a minute if they could. The cable companies regard them as ungrateful greed monsters. The nationals regard them as greedy technically incompetent buffoons. It would not surprise me to see the nationals let all contracts with the locals lapse, then cut deals with individual cable and satellite companies. The locals can then be happy with hyperlocal endless primetime programming about the latest city hall dispute over the color of street signs.

Are you talking about the Macon stations, or all stations?

All private OTAs are strongly looking at retransmission fees to get money, if they do not do it already. The PBS stations, from what I understand, are under a blanket must carry rule. The content providers, rightly or wrongly, perceive OTA only viewers as low disposable income people. Why waste time with OTA? Go straight to the cable and satellite viewers who pay for the HD packages. The ABC/Cox/ Lowell Register dispute was an ominous beginning. ABC wanted lots of money yearly from the Macon DMA. It did not care who paid. If the local OTA station has to borrow all of the payment, so be it. ABC did not care how much debt they were pushing a local OTA to have. Pay us and upgrade the entire station to HD while your at it, on the schedule we dictate. So Register went after local Cox customers for more money, along with the other cable companies customers.

Just today I read that the LA Lakers are pulling all regular games from OTA. ESPN has looked to cut deals that would pull all of NASCAR off of OTA. An advertising analyst asked the question:" Why are automobile dealers making 4:3 480i OTA commercials to sell items that cost $30,000 to $60,000? Is it possible that the only people who can afford new cars are watching television on a 50"Plasma or 55" LCD 1080P HDTV set, getting HD content from a satellite or cable provider? Make the switch to HD commercials. Your potential buyers are not rabbit ear only customers watching on a SDTV set. Those people have no disposable income."

The FCC staff would do away with OTA tomorrow, if they could get the mobile/cellular telephone companies to pay a annual lease fee per MHz of bandwith used for nationwide wireless broadband.

Yes, in a down economy the competition for monthly income has gotten much more fierce.

I do not like this situation. I wish all OTA stations had opted for extremely strong must carry rules. The cable companies would have had to carry all multicast channels the OTAs created. Look at the way PBS(GPTV) created 3 multicast channels to serve a diverse audience. Where you used to suffer with PBSKids for most of the day, now you have shows for adults on at the same time. Multicasting may have increased viewership and absolute numbers of donors for GPTV. If the private OTAs had done the same under must carry, I think we would see none of these disputes. The big national content networks would have had to get money from advertisers or pay less for big name actor salaries and benefits. No way to shakedown the OTAs or the cable/sat companies without having monthly rates go up. Everyone would know exactly who is wanting the extra money.

But, remember that the Cable companies and satellite providers use the local stations' programming to make money. Many people would not subscribe if they could not get their daily fix of the network channels and the local stuff.

So, why should broadcasters give away expensive programming to some company that is in direct competition with them?

Thanks 24 for ruining another episode of American Idol with all the audio drop outs. How annoying. Maybe you can take some of that money from Dish and upgrade your equipment or staff whichever is the problem.

i missed American Idol last night, but tonight, I see we have Dolby Digital 5.1. There's a synchronization problem, but I am not going to turn the channel. Now, I have a new receiver whose lip sync can be adjusted. Ralph hasn't posted in this thread in many months, but I have faith in his abilities to iron the audio problems out.

Wow did not know about the Dolby Digital 5.1 for I have not watched WGXA either FOX or ABC in about 9 months because of their lack of Dolby Digital I had put up an ota antenna high enough and pointed at Atlanta to successfully get FOX 5 and WSB from atlanta and have been using them for my ABC and FOX programs.

I have dtv and an antenna in my attic that I used as my main source of HDTV programming before dtv offered local HDTV in Macon. I've often wondered if I could pick up Atlanta stations with an antenna. I live in midtown Macon. If you don't mind stating, what is your general location and how high did you have to go?

Usually, audio tracks have to be slowed down a little bit to sync with the video. However, currently, channel 24's audio track is so slow that I'm unable to sync with the video. Usually, I keep my receiver at 34 ms, which, I believe, means that I'm slowing down the audio portion of programing by 34 ms in order to achieve a good audio/video sync. Currently, with channel 24, a value of 0 is not fast enough and anything above 34 only makes the degree of asyncronization far, far worse. In this situation, it would be helpful to have a feature that would allow me to increase the speed of the audio instead of slowing it down.

So basically, time travel for your receiver? It's not quite possible for it to play the audio before it receives it. A delay setting on the tv would do the trick though.

Just my way of letting Ralph Carson, who used to monitor and post on this site, know that I appreciate the efforts with bringing DD 5.1 back to Macon, but that there's a problem that I can't correct with my equipment. The audio is behind the video and I can't speed the audio up or delay the video to make them sync.

Anything of interest going on in Macon TV?

nope, we still have the same lineup over the air, 6 full power digitals 1 low-power digital and 2 low-power analogs..still no change

One of our low power analogs is RTV (The Retro Television Network). There is so much static in it that its barely watchable. I don't know if it will ever get upgraded to a digital channel.

I turned the channel to 58-1 late last night and they were showing some MeTV programming. But they just show some of the shows while they keep their current horrible lineup.

A sort-of "TV Related" question:
I see that the Georgia Music Hall of Fame is closing. Have the Macon stations been supportive of it in the past, other than paying attention to the recent controversy over it's demise?
Did they (radio or TV) do promotional tie-in's, or do live broadcasts from the GMHOF?