[opendtv] Identity Crisis / Stations may have to change channels in shiftto digital
- From: Monty Solomon <monty@xxxxxxxxxx>
- To: undisclosed-recipient: ;
- Date: Tue, 18 May 2004 22:10:08 -0400
Identity Crisis
Stations may have to change channels in shift to digital
By Bill McConnell -- Broadcasting & Cable, 5/17/2004
For more than 50 years, WWOR New York has built a brand around its
location on the dial: channel 9. The station bills its 10 p.m.
newscast "UPN9 News," and callers with tips for the investigative
team are asked to phone 1-800-CH9-News. The latest headlines can be
accessed on UPN9.com, and, of course, the number 9 is prominent in
its logo-in type twice as big as its call letters or network
affiliation.
But WWOR may be facing an identity crisis. As soon as 24 months, the
Fox-owned station may lose its highly prized single-digit spot on the
TV dial for a new channel, 38, erasing enormous brand identity built
up since the station was founded in 1949. That's because WBPH
Philadelphia has first call on channel 9 when stations shift to an
all-digital-TV format as mandated by law.
Because the two stations' transmitters are so close, WWOR can keep
using channel 9 only if it gives up some of its coverage area-a loss
of audience WWOR can ill afford. But moving to channel 38 may be a
worse fate, allowing WWOR to keep its coverage area but exiling it to
what Paxson Communications chief Bud Paxson calls the UHF
"wasteland," the bank of double-digit channels known for bad
reception and low ratings.
The DTV transition is forcing hundreds of big-market stations to make
a similar choice. Because of interference from new neighbors, some of
the more than 300 major-market stations in the Northeast, the Great
Lakes area, and northern California will be forced by the government
to return their longtime analog channel when they go all-digital.
Others will find their old location unappealing because they may have
to surrender audience-the decision WWOR faces-so a move to a new
channel may be the only choice.
For stations, the transition calls for aggressive new marketing-new
logos, new promos, even new jingles-to coax viewers into changing the
channel. The difficult choice is being forced on stations by the TV
industry's switch to all-digital channels, which some hard-liners in
Congress want to complete by 2006. The FCC estimates the transition
will be completed by 2009.
...
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA417940
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