# New ABC News Channel



## dishking (Jun 20, 2004)

ABC News today announced plans for a 24 news channel running July 26 through election day. It will be an experiment using the digital bandwidth of its owned stations and affiliates that choose to pass along the signal.

It would be interesting to know how many ABC stations plan to offer this service. ABC News missed out on the cable news boom and has been pushing its high bandwidth internet service. This could be an interesting trial run at using digital multicasting to get into the 24/7 news biz.

Please post here if your local ABC announces this service.


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## Mark Lamutt (Mar 24, 2002)

I really hope that mine doesn't...


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## Geronimo (Mar 23, 2002)

ABC had a satellite news channel back in the 80s. It was called Satellite News Channel or SNC. They co owned it with I believe Westinghouse (not then part of VIACOM/CBS) . The affilaites HATED the idea. On occasions where SNC got a scoop they felt it should have been on the network not SNC.

The operationa was finally sold to CNN who basically just wanted to make sure that no one else jumped in.


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## SamC (Jan 20, 2003)

- I remember SNC. Truly a worthless deal. It gimmick was it could go "local" and the last 5 minutes of every half-hour loop was a local report. The problem was that "local" meant the nearest Group W (Westinghouse) or ABC O&O station, which in my case was 400 miles away. The urban legend about it is true. It was sold to Ted the Red, but all he wanted and bought was the contracts with the varrious cable companies to carry the channel, all of the talent was just fired. They had an all day farewell show that progressed as they got more and more drunk and more and more, um, friendly with one another. I wish I had a tape. 

- Does anybody out there honestly think that the market really needs another echo of CNNNBCABCMSNBCCNBCCBSPBSHNCNNFN ?


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## Nick (Apr 23, 2002)

Sounds like too little too late too mee! :grin:


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## Phil T (Mar 25, 2002)

Mark Lamutt said:


> I really hope that mine doesn't...


Even if they did, nobody could see it anyway.


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## James_F (Apr 23, 2002)

Phil T said:


> Even if they did, nobody could see it anyway.


Sure, the regular ABC HD feed would probably look worse. 

Our ABC does it and let me tell you, its the worst HD ABC feed I've ever seen. :nono:


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## Mark Lamutt (Mar 24, 2002)

James_F said:


> Our ABC does it and let me tell you, its the worst HD ABC feed I've ever seen. :nono:


Hence my post... (of course there are only about 25 of us in Denver that can actually receive the local ABC channel - they broadcast from the top of their 6 story building in downtown Denver.)


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## rcbridge (Oct 31, 2002)

We in Philadelphia have a Digital sub channel which repeats the days news 24/7.
Along with a 24/7 weather sub channel.


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## dishking (Jun 20, 2004)

Some posters have said if ABC stations multicast it will impact the quality of the HD feed. Is this the case in those markets where stations are multicasting now?


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## Mark Lamutt (Mar 24, 2002)

YES! (That's my opinion, anyways)


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## James_F (Apr 23, 2002)

Same here. Our ABC feed multicasts itself, for those without a 16x9 tv. 

When I watch MNF on ABC, the grass moves and not because there is wind.


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## jamullian (May 7, 2004)

KABC (Los Angeles) are broadcasting it on 53/7-2. The PQ is awful.


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## DonLandis (Dec 17, 2003)

We have it here but since the same station didn't have PSIP active it was difficult for some reseivers to get it, including the 921 and the HDTIVO although there was a work around for the TIVO to dump the TIVO channel and you could manually enter the ABC News channel.

After some arm twisting our local ABC affil installed PSIP on Friday, completed testing and now it is seen by all digital receivers. 

Personal opinion- I believe this will be a trend setter. I believe NBC will add MSNBC, Fox will add Fox News service, CBS ? they will come on board too but I don't know with what. 
If anyone watched the latest NAPTE program on HDNet, the panel of broadcasters, appear to be looking to this as the next big push to compete with cable channels. It seems to be a way to add content from an existing cable channel to help local broadcast stations compete. According to the panel, a cable channel operates with one of the highest business model profits in the industry at 35%. Local Broadcasters are operating at near break even if they are doing well. It is hoped that this new experiment will prove a way to save the local broadcaster's butts in the 21st century, the age of the PVR. Also stated was that they are extremely afraid that DirecTV's latest campaign to give away PVR's is going to ruin the traditional TV programming model of the half hour show with 30 second commercial breaks. Several ideas to change the 55 year old programming format are being considered but not being acceptable to old diehard broadcast programming mindsets. 
I expect this type of TV subchannel will become prolific as the cable channels are already set up and ready to be integrated into the new DT from each station.


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## oldave (Dec 22, 2003)

DonLandis said:


> Personal opinion- I believe this will be a trend setter. I believe NBC will add MSNBC, Fox will add Fox News service, CBS ? they will come on board too but I don't know with what.


The local CBS affiliate used a digital sub channel to carry wall-to-wall coverage of the DNC - no commentators or anything, just the video/audio from the convention. They're still working out PSIP issues which caused their Doppler radar on the *-3 channel to not appear most of the time.

I expect they'll do the same thing for the RNC. But we'll have to wait and see (or I could email the engineer and ask him - he's quite accomodating, and was working with me to see if he could get the problem with *-3 straightened out).

I think you're probably right, though... we'll see affiliates carrying their network's "news" channel, and we'll have to wait and see what Viacom can come up with to offer the CBS and/or UPN affiliates.


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## DarrellP (Apr 24, 2002)

Our local ABC just added the news sub channel and it's not even worth viewing, I think they give it around 2.5 mbps bandwidth. At least it doesn't interfere with the HD picture.


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## ypsiguy (Jan 28, 2004)

It's on virtual channel 7-3 on WXYZ-DT(41) in Detroit. Pic quality is usual MPEG overcompression with occasional burps in the audio. Hey, at least its better than the "tower cam" picture they had going.


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## Adam Richey (Mar 25, 2002)

I wouldn't mind checking it out here in Indy. Although I can understand why they aren't in to much of a rush. WRTV's (ABC) digital signal already has it's own NewsChannel 64 on digital 25.2


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## generalpatton78 (Dec 17, 2003)

I get ABC NEWS NOW and I watch it some. It hasn't affected the HD picture of ABC one bit. The channel is broadcasted at 480i and you can tell this is a dry run through for the future. I'm sure this channel over time will improve it's quality. I think broadcaters will try to protect the quality of there HD picture. This IS there best chance to get viewers back to broadcast TV.


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