WPBS of New York to disappear from Ottawa TV
Trevor Trevor
http://www.cbc.ca/arts/story/2009/07/17/ottawa-pbs-rogers-cable-members-funding.html
Rogers cable subscribers in Ottawa have recently been told that they
will no longer be able to watch the PBS broadcast out of Watertown,
N.Y.
The station — broadcast throughout eastern Ontario since 1971 — won't
be picked up by Rogers, which said that as of Aug. 18 it will begin to
broadcast the PBS signal out of Detroit.
Donna McGrath, an Ottawa resident who has regularly contributed to
WPBS during its funding drives, said that the Watertown station will
be missed.
"If it's a done deal, I'm going to cancel my subscription to Rogers,"
she said. "I am because I just don't like the way it was handled."
WPBS said it only learned that Rogers was dropping its signal when an
Ottawa viewer emailed the station, said Lynn Brown, who has been the
director of programming since 1971.
"And it took a good half hour just kind of staring at one another and
getting over that shock," she said.
Brown said WPBS has built a relationship with communities on both
sides of the border and often chooses programs specifically for its
viewers in Ottawa.
"I just cannot believe in my heart of hearts that there's going to be
another media entity that is going to have the same commitment," she
said.
Nancy Cottenden, who speaks for Rogers, said that the company is
sticking to its decision.
"Over the years, we've heard from our customers that they'd like to
continue to receive PBS, but would like a feed that has a
higher-quality reception," she said.
The workers at the PBS station in Watertown said the decision has been
devastating for them.
The station, they said, relies heavily on the support it has received
from its eastern Ontario viewers.
Although those viewers only represent 20 per cent of the stations
members, they donate 70 per cent of the money it receives through its
funding drives.
WPBS's website urges viewers to call Rogers.
Chris Neuman
David Lynch
organizations, so giving to one station really only helps that station
directly, but there's enough symbiotic relationships between stations
that the others may help overall. Each station buys its programming
from whoever commissions it, which is done by both PBS itself and
local stations - you'll see a WGBH logo before/after "Nova" and
"Antiques Roadshow", WNET on "Nature", KLRU on "Austin City Limits,"
etc.
David J. Lynch
djl...@gmail.com
Joe Hass
(Flint). Comcast only offered me WTVS. My mom in Lake Orion does not
get WFUM on Comcast, even though she's closer to their tower than WTVS.
WTVS has a very large Canadian footprint; almost coast-to-coast via
satellite. Their branding has ignored their call letters and channel
number for at least 15 years (Detroit Public Television). This is
quite a grab for them.
Mark J.
On Jul 20, 11:39 am, David Lynch <djly...@gmail.com> wrote:
> As I understand it, it's pretty much a collective of independent
> organizations, so giving to one station really only helps that station
> directly, but there's enough symbiotic relationships between stations
> that the others may help overall. Each station buys its programming
> from whoever commissions it, which is done by both PBS itself and
> local stations - you'll see a WGBH logo before/after "Nova" and
> "Antiques Roadshow", WNET on "Nature", KLRU on "Austin City Limits,"
> etc.
programming gets put up for licensing. All of those shows get that
"Viewers Like You--Thank You" tag at the beginning and end of the
shows. Anything that's totally funded by underwriters is free to all
stations.
Programming also comes from American Public Television and other
sources and syndicators.
The model for PBS is the original ITV commercial network in the UK,
which was a loose confederation of the commercial licensees and where
the individual licensess bought programming from the other licensees
and made co-op deals on movies and overseas programming, along with
funding the news division, ITN, which is technically separate from
ITV. Other similarities were a core group of program suppliers (with
PBS, WNET, WGBH, WETA, WTTW, KCET, KQED, CTW/Sesame Workshop; for ITV,
Granada and licensees in London and the Midlands), wide variance in
programming schedules from market to market and (until 1988 in the UK,
mid-90s in the U.S.) running the station producer logos at the top of
the show (on ITV, the station logos would replace the local
licensee's, since the ID for the local licensee was provided by the on-
camera booth announcer before the show). Now, although much of PBS
still follows the old ITV, the bulk of the ITV licenses are owned by
ITV (which is now the merged Carlton and Granada), the schedule is
virtually the same everywhere in the UK and instead of the on-camera
booth announcers, there's just one set of announcers in London and for
local programming (which is nowadays news and not much else) the
London announcers voice track for the individual stations.
Brad Beam
From: Chris Neuman
>Are US residents served by their closest available PBS station? Obviously
>yes when it comes to over the air broadcast, but do cable companies provide
>the most local as well?
Not exactly.
Several months back, Comcast and WV PBS made arrangements to add digital and
HD subchannels from its Morgantown affiliate -- which, via translators, also
serves both northern and eastern panhandles.
Comcast unveiled its new line-up, moving all of WNPB's offerings to a cable
box-level tier while either WQED/Pittsburgh or WETA/Washington (based on
location) remained on a box-less tier.
The situation was resolved when Comcast announced that it would provide
cable boxes free throughout the region for two years, up from one after
pressure from the governor and Sen Rockefeller.
>When pledge drive rolls around, are donations pooled and shared out to each
>station, or does the local station keep a portion of the local money?
There are several statewide and regional public-radio networks (e.g. WV, MN,
High Plains Public Radio) that would pool their resources to its member
stations, but otherwise, as previously mentioned, it's pretty much every
station for itself.
_ _
|_>|_> Brad Beam- Belle WV
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