[opendtv] Re: News: Sinclair Sticks To Feb. 17 Analog Cutoff

  • From: Tom Barry <trbarry@xxxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
  • Date: Wed, 04 Feb 2009 18:22:03 -0500

Good for Sinclair!

Not that anyone probably cares but I personally support all and any stations that just get it over with, finishing the transition on schedule. Though I understand that's not possible for every stations.

AFAIK, my sentiments probably represent the majority of AVS HDTV forum members.

As far as the general public, I assume they will mostly do something once they see snow on the screen, and not until. Most of them won't encounter that anyway.

And I can't imagine many people writing their Congress critter just to complain if only a bedroom or bathroom TV set snows.

- Tom


Craig Birkmaier wrote:
http://digitalvideoreport.blogspot.com/2009/02/sinclair-sticks-to-feb-17-analog-cutoff.html

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 2, 2009
Sinclair Sticks To Feb. 17 Analog Cutoff

By Ted Hearn

Washington -- Sinclair Broadcast Group, Inc., one of the largest TV station owners in the U.S., is going forward with the digital TV transition on Feb. 17 regardless of whether Congress votes to move the date back to June 12.

In an email Monday, Sinclair executive vice president and general counsel Barry M. Faber told cable and satellite TV providers that 39 stations owned or programmed by the company would keep to the Feb. 17 deadline in current law. A copy of the email was obtained by Digital Video Report.

"I am writing to let you know that even if the legislation being considered by Congress to extend the date of the analog shut-off passes, the following stations [see list below] owned by Sinclair, or to which Sinclair provides services, will still be ceasing their analog broadcasts at 11:59 pm on Feb.17," Faber announced.

On its corporate web site, Sinclair says it "owns and operates, programs, or provides sales services to 58 television stations in 35 markets," reaching 22% of all U.S. television households. Its television station portfolio includes 20 FOX, 17 MyTV, 9 ABC, 9 CW, 2 CBS affiliates. It has one NBC affiliate.

The House is planning to vote Wednesday on a bill to delay to DTV transition until June 12. Delay legislation got its impetus from the Obama transition team, which claimed the Commerce Department's $1.34 billion converter box coupon program had run out of money and 6.5 million TV households had failed to prepare for the end of analog TV.

The National Association of Broadcasters is supporting DTV delay legislation passed by the Senate last Thursday. Sinclair isn't an NAB member. The Senate bill, sponsored Senate Commerce Committee chairman Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.), allows stations to make the transition voluntarily prior to June 12.


In his email to pay-TV providers, Faber indicated that Sinclair's decision should not have come as a surprise.

"I assume that this will not cause any problems with your continued retransmission of the signals of those stations on this list currently being carried by your systems since we have all been planning for a Feb. 17 analog shut-off for quite some time," Faber wrote.

Following is the station list contained in Faber's email.

WNYS-MyNet- Syracuse, N.Y.
WUCW-CW-Minneapolis
KOKH-Fox-Oklahoma City
WUHF-Fox-Rochester, N.Y.
KDNL-ABC-St. Louis

KOCB-CW-Oklahoma City
KBSI-Fox-Cape Girardeau, M.O.
WMYV-MyNet-Greensboro
WSYT-Fox-Syracuse, N.Y.
WPGH-Fox-Pittsburgh

WPMY-MyNet-Pittsburgh
WICS-ABC-Champaign, Il.
WBFF-Fox-Baltimore
WNUV-CW-Baltimore
WXLV-ABC-Greensboro


WICD-ABC-Champaign, Il.
WZTV-Fox-Nashville
WUXP-MyNet-Nashville
WNAB-CW-Nashville
WUTV-Fox-Buffalo


KGAN-CBS-Cedar Rapids
WRLH-Fox-Richmond
WYZZ-Fox-Peoria
WCGV-MyNet-Milwaukee
WEAR-ABC-Mobile

KMYS-MyNet-San Antonio
WKEF-ABC-Dayton
WRGT-Fox-Dayton
WTTE-Fox-Columbus, Oh.
WTTO-CW-Tuscaloosa


WABM-MyNet-Tuscaloosa
WDBB-MyNet-Tuscaloosa
WNYO-MyNet-Buffalo
KDSM-Fox-Des Moines
WMYA-MyNet-Greenville, S.C.

KVCW-CW-Las Vegas
WGME-ABC-Portland, ME
WCHS-ABC-Charleston, W. Va.
WVAH-Fox-Charleston, W.Va.


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