# which NY/LA superstations are carried in high def?



## Guest (Feb 14, 2011)

which NY/LA superstations are carried in high def?

thanks!


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## scooper (Apr 22, 2002)

Outside of their home markets ? - NONE.


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## david_jr (Dec 10, 2006)

This is something Dish really needs to address. After all we are paying extra for this package. If they don't go high def soon, I will drop. WGN is in hi def. Why not the rest??????


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## BillJ (May 5, 2005)

Probably would require a new carry agreement but definitely something I'd like to see. Of course, I also like to see those 4 Disney channels restored to HD and that seems to be a dead horse.


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## James Long (Apr 17, 2003)

david_jr said:


> This is something Dish really needs to address. After all we are paying extra for this package. If they don't go high def soon, I will drop. WGN is in hi def. Why not the rest??????


WGN America is not a superstation ... they are just another cable channel (like TBS, CNN, TWC, ESPN and a couple hundred more).

WGN was a superstation but they, like WTBS, created a separate feed for satellite and became a normal satellite channel in order to avoid blackouts on content that they only had the rights to air in their own market (syndication). In the Chicago area subscribers get two WGNs, the "WGN America" channel seen nationwide and their own local WGN9.

BTW: KTLA, WPIX and KWGN are HD in their own markets, WSBK and WWOR are not. Carrying the current HD feeds would provide a HD CW for all time zones.


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## James Long (Apr 17, 2003)

BillJ said:


> Probably would require a new carry agreement but definitely something I'd like to see.


That may be the issue. Superstations are not carried based on an agreement ... they are carried based on a statutory license. I assume that the law considers a station a station and if DISH can carry the HD feed centercut and downconverted I don't see why they couldn't carry it in full HD resolution.


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## FTA Michael (Jul 21, 2002)

James Long said:


> if DISH can carry the HD feed centercut and downconverted I don't see why they couldn't carry it in full HD resolution.


Ditto. The law that allows Dish to carry these five is quite brief, so there must be some underlying interpretation or legal opinion that we're not aware of. You'd think that Dish would love to sell HD feeds if it thought it could, or maybe even if it thought it could get away with it for a while.


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## david_jr (Dec 10, 2006)

James Long said:


> WGN America is not a superstation ... they are just another cable channel (like TBS, CNN, TWC, ESPN and a couple hundred more).
> 
> WGN was a superstation but they, like WTBS, created a separate feed for satellite and became a normal satellite channel in order to avoid blackouts on content that they only had the rights to air in their own market (syndication). In the Chicago area subscribers get two WGNs, the "WGN America" channel seen nationwide and their own local WGN9.
> 
> BTW: KTLA, WPIX and KWGN are HD in their own markets, WSBK and WWOR are not. Carrying the current HD feeds would provide a HD CW for all time zones.


Without HD right now the super package carries little value and I am seriously considering dropping it. Any idea when the super package agreement is up? Are the stations bargained seperate or is it bargained as a package? Also is the SS package tied to anything? If I drop it I just get a $7 credit on my bill right? I don't lose anything else do I?


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## garys (Nov 4, 2005)

There is usually a downgrade fee for dropping it. You will not be billed for it once it is gone so there would not be any ongoing credit. There could be full or part credit depending when you remove the package from your account.


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## Paul Secic (Dec 16, 2003)

quietmouse said:


> which NY/LA superstations are carried in high def?
> 
> thanks!


I had KTLA for 7 years & KBCW in San Franisco asked Dish to shut KTLA off. Dish complied.


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## FTA Michael (Jul 21, 2002)

david_jr said:


> Are the stations bargained seperate or is it bargained as a package?


It's my understanding that the stations aren't "bargained" at all. That's the point of the law - Dish doesn't have to ask permission (which it likely wouldn't get) to carry these grandfathered channels, so long as they pay a fee, which goes to the stations.


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## James Long (Apr 17, 2003)

david_jr said:


> Without HD right now the super package carries little value and I am seriously considering dropping it. Any idea when the super package agreement is up? Are the stations bargained seperate or is it bargained as a package? Also is the SS package tied to anything? If I drop it I just get a $7 credit on my bill right? I don't lose anything else do I?


Superstations can be offered as long as DISH wants to offer the service and the law allows. DISH currently sells the channels individually ($2 each per month) or in the $7 package (although the online "change your programming" site is missing this package). There is no commitment connected to subscribing ... drop or add at any time with only the $5 downgrade fee.



Paul Secic said:


> I had KTLA for 7 years & KBCW in San Franisco asked Dish to shut KTLA off. Dish complied.


If the superstations became HD I wonder how many CW affiliates would complain and ask DISH to remove the package from their markets? Remaining SD may be a compromise.


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## kucharsk (Sep 20, 2006)

Quite frankly I think it's more a matter of DISH wanting to use the bandwidth it would require to carry the superstations in HD for _other_ HD channels.


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## James Long (Apr 17, 2003)

kucharsk said:


> Quite frankly I think it's more a matter of DISH wanting to use the bandwidth it would require to carry the superstations in HD for _other_ HD channels.


Possibly ... when they had more capacity there was the lingering question of "analog" channels in the description of Superstations. The word "analog" was removed last year when the law allowing superstations was extended, but now there is a capacity crunch.


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## tampa8 (Mar 30, 2002)

James Long said:


> DISH currently sells the channels individually ($2 each per month) or in the $7 package (although the online "change your programming" site is missing this package). There is no commitment connected to subscribing ... drop or add at any time with only the $5 downgrade fee.
> 
> If the superstations became HD I wonder how many CW affiliates would complain and ask DISH to remove the package from their markets? Remaining SD may be a compromise.


The $7 package does show up on the right hand side with your other charges when you pick all five. The problem is, so does the $2 each, so you get a total of $17. I'm told by online Dish CSR's this gets fixed to $7 before you're billed.

It is and always has been possible for a superstation to be blocked. I don't know if the add programming page is sophisticated enough, or perhaps nowhere are any superstations blocked anymore, but it used to be you were told if you qualified for all of them. So it is entirely possible if Dish did CW in HD the locals would block it anyway. I still watch KTLA, WSBK, and the two NY ones often either for the local programming/news, or for some of the shows nothing in my area carries.


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## James Long (Apr 17, 2003)

tampa8 said:


> I don't know if the add programming page is sophisticated enough, or perhaps nowhere are any superstations blocked anymore, but it used to be you were told if you qualified for all of them.


The locals qualification page shows superstations - or at least it does for my address:
http://www.dishnetwork.com/packages/local/default.aspx

(It shows them as WB and UPN affiliates, but at least it shows the channels. Local channels and RSNs are also shown on that page.)


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## SayWhat? (Jun 7, 2009)

david_jr said:


> Without HD right now the super package carries little value ...


Why?

Or should I ask, why not?


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## david_jr (Dec 10, 2006)

Several years ago the superstations were more of a big deal because a majority of their content wasn't available locally, at least to me. Also they carried a lot of sports particularly baseball. Now a lot of the baseball has moved off to Team channels and sports is now hard to watch in SD (at least for me). CW in HD is what I've been holding out for with the package because I can't get the local CW in HD (it is the only OTA I can't receive) and DISH does not yet carry our CW on satellite in HD (SD only). So I find us not watching the supers much at all anymore. $7 a month for rarely watched channels is getting harder to stomach. HD would get them watched more and I would probably keep them. If there's nothing in the wind about them going HD by the summer I will most likely drop them.


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## James Long (Apr 17, 2003)

Dropping superstations is a good way of saving $7 if there is nothing unique on them.

If DISH ever upgrades to HD they can be added again ... for CW HD perhaps by adding just the one for one's own time zone.


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## runner861 (Mar 20, 2010)

I had them but dropped them about a year ago precisely because they weren't in HD. I would have gladly kept them had they beeen offered in HD.


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## Paul Secic (Dec 16, 2003)

James Long said:


> The locals qualification page shows superstations - or at least it does for my address:
> http://www.dishnetwork.com/packages/local/default.aspx
> 
> (It shows them as WB and UPN affiliates, but at least it shows the channels. Local channels and RSNs are also shown on that page.)


Aren't the Superstations in HD on spot beams in those towns?


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## James Long (Apr 17, 2003)

Paul Secic said:


> Aren't the Superstations in HD on spot beams in those towns?


Three of the four stations that are used as superstations are available in their own markets in HD. They are delivered by spot beam. If those three stations were moved to ConUS feeds they could be made available to superstation subscribers.


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## jpeckinp (Nov 6, 2006)

runner861 said:


> I had them but dropped them about a year ago precisely because they weren't in HD. I would have gladly kept them had they beeen offered in HD.


X2


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## levibluewa (Aug 13, 2005)

jpeckinp said:


> X2


X3


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## Geronimo (Mar 23, 2002)

James Long said:


> Three of the four stations that are used as superstations are available in their own markets in HD. They are delivered by spot beam. If those three stations were moved to ConUS feeds they could be made available to superstation subscribers.


There are FIVE superstations not FOUR.


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## James Long (Apr 17, 2003)

Geronimo said:


> There are FIVE superstations not FOUR.


Thank you for the promptness of your reply.


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## Geronimo (Mar 23, 2002)

Sorry I simply did not see it before.


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## kucharsk (Sep 20, 2006)

All I want is KTLA in HD and I'd be a happy camper.


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## tampa8 (Mar 30, 2002)

Hey, feel better, All I want is the red head girl in "The Mentalist" Amanda Righetti. I think what you want will happen first.


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## gor88 (May 9, 2003)

James Long said:


> If the superstations became HD I wonder how many CW affiliates would complain and ask DISH to remove the package from their markets? Remaining SD may be a compromise.


That would probably include the Jackson, MS CW affiliate, WRBJ, owned by Roberts Broadcasting Co of St. Louis. They won't broadcast HD. The station used to have its own website and facebook presence, but removed them completely.

I have a suspicion that they got tired of people complaining about the low picture quality and lack of HD. My wife is into The Vampire Diaries. The show uses low light in many of the scenes for effect. If you watch on the CW website or via HD avi file, you see the faces and other objects in the room just fine. On WRBJ, some faces and objects go black. Also, the picture quality is a little fuzzy.

If Dish would offer any of the CW superstations in HD, preferably WPIX New York, we'd gladly pay the $2 per month and tell WRBJ to jump in the lake until they upgrade to HD.


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## SeaBeagle (May 7, 2006)

"Geronimo" said:


> There are FIVE superstations not FOUR.


All local TV stations should be CONUS.


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## CCarncross (Jul 19, 2005)

SeaBeagle said:


> All local TV stations should be CONUS.


That makes absolutely no sense geographically or financially. Since most watchers of local stations will be in that specific local area, perfectly suited for spot beams and not CONUS.


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## tampa8 (Mar 30, 2002)

SeaBeagle said:


> All local TV stations should be CONUS.


Huh? Do you even understand what that would mean?


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## RasputinAXP (Jan 23, 2008)

Clearly not.


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## kucharsk (Sep 20, 2006)

It would be nice if they were at least 16:9 rather than center cut and zoomed.


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## RasputinAXP (Jan 23, 2008)

N-N-N-N-NECRO POST


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## Ray [email protected] Network (Dec 28, 2010)

If you downgrade your programming within 30 of adding or changing your programming, there is a $5 downgrade charge. Any time after 30 days, there is not a downgrade charge. I just wanted to clarify this. Thanks.


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