Since I started watching cable in the early 90s, I’ve been wondering why almost all of the US channels we get in Calgary are from Spokane/Coeur d’Alene. This includes a Fox Channel, an NBC Channel, an ABC channel, PBS, and some others. By becoming a PBS member, we get discounts around here and around Spokane.
Do other Canadian cities have US TV-buddy cities? Does Spokane/Coeur d’Alene get Calgarian TV channels?
And how deep does this friendship go… are we just using them for their TV, or do Calgary and Spokane/Coeur d’Alene have more in common?
And why don’t we get channels from nearby Canadian cities? Is it because they’re owned by the same networks as the ones in Calgary?
This is a whole lot of questions in one! Thanks to anyone whose head hasn’t exploded yet and is planning on answering.
This is more-or-less a WAG, but my assumption is that it has to do with the proximity of the stations’ microwave repeaters to your cable provider.
Here in Vancouver, the local US stations we get are mainly based in Seattle and Bellingham.
Of course, we have the technology now so that any station anywhere could sattelite access and have their programming distributed pretty much anywhere else – but that’s expensive, and how much demand is there for local news from the other side of the continent? More importantly, is there any benefit at all to pushing advertising long distance?
I know lots of folks who go to events and shops in Washington that are advertised on KVOS.
To some degree, anyway. One of our big local stations out here is CHAN. It’s part of the Global network, so if you’re watching CICT, you’re watching pretty much the same programming, except for the local news.
Same deal with CityTV – in Calgary, it’s CKAL, in Vancouver CKVU. Hugely redundant, apart from specifically local programming.
I think Spokane just the closest US city. From when I was in Coeur d’Alene I don’t remember any Canadian channels, but I do know that the NPR (US public radio) did broadcast all over the area up into Okanagan and such.