Waiting on Fox 6

[foxeng]

Originally posted by Tom Snyder
Thanks for your participation foxeng.

If it's purely a financial decision, and the directive comes from corporate then so be it.  But we HAVE heard from WITI managment, but the story we have gotten for two years is that it is always weather-related... they need to strengthen the tower and it's too cold, too windy, too late in the fall, too early in the spring...etc...

I respect your attitude. No problem there.

As a business man, then I am sure you can understand that you have to satisfy the majority of your clientèle or you don't don't stay in business long.  Right now the dollars are made from the analog viewers and not the digital viewers (I know you know that) no matter how much the viewers or the station wishes to provide expanded services. With better than 90% of the revenue NOT coming from digital, it has to take its place among any upgrades to studio equipment, news equipment, building updates, etc. It all has to work out of the same budget.  That is the attitude FOX takes with all their capital expenditures and that is what any digital upgrade is termed, capital upgrade, not operating upgrade.

Knowing what I know of the situation on the tower there and what is required to make that happen, I can tell you from first hand iterations from the people riding hurd over it, it was frustrating for WITI as well. They were told one thing and something else happened. The fact that the tower is finished will make ANY move of digital to that tower much easier and hopefully quicker. It is my understanding that the tower is ready for a full power DTV antenna and feed line system, something that it would not have been able to support before the retrofit.

I can tell you from first hand experience that when you deal with towers, nothing goes according to plan and I have built 3 tall towers and done repair work on numerous others and NONE of those went according to plan. It is like renovating a house, you start out with a plan and then you find you have termites and that has to be fixed and your budget and time line are shot.  Tower work of all kinds is just like that.

Now, if you do not watch WITI because you can't get a digital signal OTA, well, I will tell you like I tell my viewers, that is a  dumb reason NOT to watch. It smells of take my marbles and go home. You know that this condition will not be permanent and within 2 years, it will resolve itself, but if that is the way you feel, then by all means you have the right to NOT watch. But could there be some other reason you don't like the station? If so, that is fine and none of my business, but it seems to me that there is something else below the surface here.

As a southerner, with northern blood on my father's side, I have always not quite understood the motives of northerns on some of the most trivial things. I think that is why Seinfeld is popular. Now that is a great study in northern behavior on the trivial! (wished I had thought of it first, then I would be the rich one!)

All I am trying to do here is point out things that seem obvious, but being far removed from the situation, it just seems silly to me. Nothing personal, just a observation.

[Joseph S]

It smells of take my marbles and go home.

Boy, sounds like Fox motto itself.

The problem is every Fox show worth watching will be canceled and cancelled within weeks to be replaced with "Joe Millionaire's Whores on Ice - When Polar Bears Attack." So why waste your time? The sports programming features a bunch of buffoons like McCarver and Baby Buck. ABC,CBS, and ESPN give me my fill of AFC and college games in the Fall.

Without actual programming and no HD, I have zero motive to watch your stations and thus a boycott is a piece of cake. Maybe someday Fox will learn not to "offend" the viewership.

[John L]

I certainly hope WITI will have their DTV operation at full power by the begining of August when the Packers will start playing.  That way by September when the NFL season starts up again, hopefully the Packer games shown on ch. 6 will be in HD.

-John L.

[borghe]

well, I haven't liked any of what I have heard..

and actually my whole problem comes from that I WON'T pay for TWC.. aside from bad experiences, I paid $500 for an OTA receiver and $250 for an OTA antenna and install. I don't at all regret the money and feel without question that it was a solid investment, but after such an investment, another $20/month is just flat out silly.. Not only that but in two weeks I will have a Tivo able to record everything except for 6, and even if I were to spend $20/month on channel 6 it would still not allow me to record it unless I paid an extra $35/month for digital package and DVR service.

Thanks for your participation foxeng.. I wish it satisfied my desiores a little more, but whatever... I guess I know that WITI knows our concerns, and that they will do things as corporate mandates.. I wish there were 60K users in southeastern WI pushing them to go full power on east capital, but I know that not only isn't that the case, but problably the majority of HD customers will have no problem getting them through TWC... even though I would say possibly 1/4-1/2 of Milwaukee  cable subs are DirecTV or Dish subs, I doubt many of those are HD subs....

it just sucks to be powerless and know there is nothing you can do about it. It also sucks that indirectly WITI and parent company Fox/News Corp is pushing more people to TWC, especially considering they own DirecTV. I'm sure News Corp isn't even aware of it but it is essentially one arm of News Corp sending customers away from another arm of News Corp.. ironic I guess..

[tazman]

well, I haven't liked any of what I have heard..

My sentiments exactly.  I'm pretty much in the same boat you are.  I have Charter available to me here in the West Bend area but they offer no HD and are totaly clueless as to when they will have it avialable.  Go figure Charter in Madison from what I've heard has HD.  I'm not gonna spend $40.00 plus a month just for standard definition TV.  Direct TV HD sucks Dish isn't to bad, but I would be at $55.00 plus a month for that just to get the HD.  If I do decide on at satellite provider it will probably be VOOM.  They appear to have the most HD progrgramming available and at a competitive price range:bang:

[gparris]

Thank you foxeng for all your insightful comments. It has been quite an education. :cool:
There are 2 shows I really enjoy on your FOX network and these are "24" and "Wonderfalls", thank you. Without TWC giving me  the FOX EDTV channel to me on their system, I find the analog versions on basic cable channel 6 harder to watch on the bigger screens I have.  It is really a matter of preference in shows you watch and being selective, IMHO.  (Fox doesn't have junk all the time).

Charter is like those cable systems that summerfun and I find when we travel to other parts of the country like Texas: no HD available on their cable systems in some cities because they do not care or understand it...either way, you are screwed.

TWC is not available in Jackson, so Directv or Dish (less analog 58) is your only choice with OTA antennas for the HD locals. This is one reason to be glad for TWC if you can get it or satellite for its availablity everywhere you can get a line of sight.

borghe, I am glad for the analogy about Fox stations and Directv connection with sending subscribers to cable due to their lack of transmitter/equipment "commitment" to the OTA folks. Sincerely, that was a revelation...however, if Directv really wants to give cable a run for its money, get that 7S satellite up and running and have what Voom  delivers in its package of HD channels. Then HDTV owners with OTA will really be ahead with the new HD Tivos and never say the word "cable" again.

[Joseph S]

There are 2 shows I really enjoy on your FOX network and these are "24" and "Wonderfalls",

You mean there is 1 show...


Wonderfalls was axed two weeks ago.

[gparris]

Thanks for the news...now all I have to watch is the balance of "24" and I'm done!

:mad: Fox couldn't wait for anyone to pick up on the show - so they dumped it, just like they did with "Firefly" that Space show last year!:bang:

It truly is the junk network....!:o

[tazman]

Maybe that's why the Brits make sport of hunting them.

[borghe]

yes, wonderfalls was axed.. and even worse is that Arrested Development is fighting for its life right now also..

and technically all of my Fox problems COULD go away if DirecTV would ever just launch that national Fox feed like they announced at the beginning of the year. We are eligible in the Milwaukee area to receive that, it is only a matter of getting the channel launched.

as for 7s, it is being launched in 3 weeks. and that is a hjard date. it is currently out of DirecTV's hands until after that date, at which point it will finally (after two years) be completely and totally dependent on them. Up until now it has been 100% the fault of SSL (well, and a small part Echostar for holding up the production), but once it launches May 2nd, hopefully we will see DirecTV move ahead with all of their plans that have sufferd as a result of the hold up from SSL.

I would also imagine this will not only be the first satellite produced for DirecTV by SSL, but probably also the last one. I can't believe how poorly this has gone.

[Tom Snyder]

all of my Fox problems COULD go away if DirecTV would ever just launch that national Fox feed

Maybe not... What football game would they show on the National feed on a Packer Sunday? I don't believe they'd be able to break out the regional action. My guess is that the entire nation would get the "A" Game and either the "B" Game (if one were the early game and the other were the late one). But that doesn't guarntee that the Packers would be shown.

Of course if they only the A and B games are the only two they show in Enhanced Widescreen (or HDTV), it wouldn't matter. If the Packer game  isn't an A or B, they would be in 4:3 SD, and you could get that on the main local channel.

[Matt Heebner]

I've read on AVS that ALL FOX football games this coming season will be in 720p.....of course in no way is this to mean that we will be seeing the Packers on the national feed. Wouldn't we be getting like the Buffalo Bills games, or NY Jets or Giants games ? We will be getting NYC's Eastern feed of FOX.


The question becomes.....how are us Directv people gonna see the Packers in HD this fall ?

Hmmmmmmm...... :confused:

Matt

[gb4fan92]

Matt
          Fox broadcasts the NFC games. CBS does the AFC. (Buffalo Bills and NY Jets are in the AFC). :confused:

          Seems like its been a long time since the last NFL game.

[borghe]

Originally posted by Matt Heebner
The question becomes.....how are us Directv people gonna see the Packers in HD this fall ?

Call me a glutton for punishment but I am extremely optomistic that we will have a finished tower by this fall....

worst comes to worst I'll throw my RS DBT on my second antenna input and grab it from there...