From Twitter:
OETA begins the end of our statewide digital transition today – Lawton Viewers: OETA channel 36 switches to digital-only TODAY! You must RESCAN your converter boxes and digital TV sets to continue watching OETA channel 36.1 and our new digital Okla Channel 36.2 … Tomorrow, we travel to Altus and Frederick … watch for on location posts from Tech Director Mark Norman each day. Questions? info@oeta.tv
9 Comments
Any chance that public television will now resume broadcasting subchannels 3 and 4 OTA, rather than publishing guide data but reserving them exclusively for paying customers of a private service owned by a private company?
Yeah, didn’t think so.
Sweetheart deal between OETA and Cox Cable?
I don’t know what it is other than “wrong.” I suspect “illegal” as well but I am neither a legislator nor a prosecutor.
I suspect they only do 2 channels OTA to preserve bandwidth for their main HD channel.
servicetech – I think that is the case.
Before they hit this deal with Cox, they used to broadcast all four subchannels round the clock, dropping the latter two if they needed bandwidth for the first two. That was a far, far better solution than producing two 24/7 channels of really useful programming (Everyday Food, Cook’s Country, Oklahoma Gardening) and then selling them only to people who buy Cox cable.
And Cox isn’t even a public company.
If they’re not going to air 13-3 and 13-4 in OKC, they should stop publishing guide data for them on the air. And, IMHO, they should not produce public television channels, with state money, available only to consumers of a private for-profit service.
I have mixed feelings about. When they originally announced the deal with Cox, the deal cut back on the number of hours they had programming in HD since none of the daytime stuff was HD and not all of the evening stuff was HD. Now, most of the stuff they have in primetime is HD and repeated in HD at night, plus good chucks of the rest of the schedule is in HD.
That said, I record 90 minutes of Tavis Smiley and Charlie Rose overnight from OETA-OKLA and might record stuff off the channels only shown on Cox if I could get them.
Dennis
I am wondering why some programs that used to be in HD on OETA are no longer presented in HD. Smart Travels and Rick Steve’s Europe are two examples but there are many others.
There’s some stuff that was carried on the national PBS channel in HD that is not shown in HD on OETA now. I’m thinking specifically of Rick Bayless’ “Mexico: One Plate at at Time” which is apparently shot in HD, but not shown on OETA on Saturday in HD. I would guess Smart Travels and Rick Steve’s Europe fall under the same reasons, though I don’t know what that is.