Is cable channel 3 a coveted position?

Factual Questions
1

I little background for my question…I have DirecTV, but since I live in a city where I should be able to get network channels via antenna, DirecTV won’t give them to me via the satellite. However, since I live in a rented apartment and don’t have the option of hooking up a roof antenna, I’m not satisfied with the signal strength I get from rabbit ear antennae. So, I also subscribe to basic cable, which gives me the networks plus a few other loser channels.

Anyway, I’m sitting here watching TV, and it occurred to me that I need to have the TV on channel 3 to watch the satellite and VCR. When I turn either of those devices off, there’s my cable channel 3 (which happens to be NBC). I got to thinking…is channel 3 a coveted position in the cable lineup for this reason? I find that I watch a lot of things by default simply because I turned off the satellite and was too lazy to change the cable channel. Hence, whatever network sits on channel 3 probably gets a bigger viewership than the other networks merely by holding the channel 3 position in hte cable lineup.

Does anyone know whether networks have to grapple for the channel 3 position? How is this decided?

2

Channel 3 isn’t very popular for broadcast channels in the big markets. My cable system here in the LA area has used Channel 3 for stuff like bulletin board announcements and now it’s the TV Guide channel.

It’s never very compelling viewing. If there’s no broadcast channel 3 in the area most people won’t be tempted to watch cable channel 3 because they will automatically know that it’s some weird channel.

At least that’s the way I perceive it.

3

If it is an over-the-air station, the FCC does the licensing, and the cable company has to put channel 7 on their channel 7 (“must-carry” rule). Beyond that, the cable company can do whatever they want (give or take). IIRC, the cable networks have been known to pay/reduce the costs to get a lower # position.

For the record, in my Los Angeles based cable company, TV Land is in Channel 3.

4

I’m not sure I understand this. If you were to try and tune into our local network stations with an over-the-air antenna, the channel assigments would be as follows:

ABC: 16
CBS: 22
NBC: 28
WB: 38
PBS: 44
FOX: 56

With the cable company I subscribe to, the channels are as follows:

ABC: 6
CBS: 2
NBC: 3
WB: 7
PBS: 4
FOX: 5

Am I confused? I took your statement above to mean that if the over-the-air assigned channel is 16 (for example), it would also have to be channel 16 on cable, but this is clearly not the case in the area that I live.

5

Not quite. The cable company does not have to put a channel on a particular channel. If ABC is channel 3 that doesn’t mean it MUST be cable 3.

The thing is since originally VHF was all we had on TV and that was channels 2-13 (forget ch1 that is another thread)

Bigger Markets tend NOT to have a channel 3 as the larger markets received the most VHF stations. For example in order to give NYC, LA, CHGO the most VHF stations they gave them 2,4,5,7,9, 11 (13 in NY & LA). That allowed for Max of 7 VHF stations.

You see you can’t put two VHF channels in the same city next to each other, except channels 4 and 5 or 6 and 7. Though they appear to be next to each other they are far apart on the spectrum.

The most you can get out of a channel 3 market is 3, 5,7,9,11,13 or 6 channels. The problem is you can use channels 2 and get 2,4,5,7,9,11,13 or 7 channels or 2,4,6,7,9,11,13 or still 7 channels.

So basically at first all the larger cities were given the 2,4…combos. Later it became necessary for other reasons to assign stations so it got a bit more complex. (For example they took Channel 4 from Chicago and gave it to Milwaukee as Milwaukee’s TV3 was interfering with Kalamazoo’s TV3.

So anyway people got used to the VHF dial and it became better to have a VHF number 2-13. Even better channels 2-6 are better (they are stronger) than 7-13. You will note in the late 70s early 80s many networks (esp ABC) changed high end VHF for low end VHF.

Now with TVs no longer using dials most of the original reasonings were outmoded.

With some networks they want the “VHF” channels (2-13) in a cable company (though for cable it don’t matter). For example FOX32 wants Channel 12 as 32 is similar to 32. I guess they have a 2 in them.

UPN50 in Chgo wanted channel 8 in cable as it is between Number 1 ABC7 and cable giant WGNTV9 (though in CHGO WGN is an over the air station)

So networks often bargain with cable companies for channel positions as it is easier for them to advertise.

UPN50 can say “Watch us tonight on Power50, Cable 8.”

Channel 3 is the most used for auxillary TV devices as Channel 3 is less used. You will not most devices let you use Channel 4 if Channel 3 is being used.

The must carry rule simply means that if a station broadcasts over the air they can force the Cable company to carry them. This helps small stations like (in Chgo) WJYS TV 62 or the PAX network.

Before this our cable company didn’t carry UPN or any of the small Chicago stations…TV60,TV62,TV66,TV44(the latter are Spanish Language Stations.)

6

In the San Francisco/San Jose market KNTV 11 used to be on cable channel 11. However, they recently asked to be moved to cable channel 3 so that they are mixed in with the other local network stations 2, 4, 5, and 7 (all on the same cable channel as their broadcast channel). This way people are more likely to stumble upon Channel 11’s programming (currently UPN, NBC in the near future) while surfing between the other local stations. On my cable system channel 3 used to be the TV guide station, now that has been moved to 11. It just ain’t right.

I’m not sure if TV stations pay for the privilege or not, but local cable companies seem to be agreeable in assigning their cable channels as the local broadcasters would like them to do.

7

Both places I’ve lived (NE Ohio and Central NY state) have NBC on Channel 3. Both cable and broadcast. In Ohio, ABC is 5, CBS is 19 and Fox is 8. In NY, ABC on 9, CBS on 5 (Syracuse) and 12 (Binghamton), Fox on 8 on cable, but I’m not sure if that’s the broadcast channel.

Jman