# What the fuck, no more CBS in St. Louis? **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [December 23, 2008, 10:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-fuck-no-more-cbs-in-st-louis/478452 "2008-12-23T22:35:15Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![amarinth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3be4f8/32.png) [@amarinth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amarinth)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2008, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-fuck-no-more-cbs-in-st-louis/478452/21 "2008-12-24T16:40:42Z")
> [@gravitycrash](#): > > KMOV is going to lose this battle. And lose it big. Who the hell doesn’t have cable or a satellite dish anymore? They have no bargaining strength at all. And yes, I know there are some poor people without it but KMOV doesn’t give a shit about them. Apartments & condos. Cable is allowed - sticking things on the walls and roofs of shared spaces is often not. Plus, I don’t see how everyone moving to dish is a win for the cable company. ---
**Author:** ![UncleBeer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/977dab/32.png) [@UncleBeer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UncleBeer)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2008, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-fuck-no-more-cbs-in-st-louis/478452/22 "2008-12-24T17:30:46Z")
> [@kunilou](#): > > The FCC “must carry” rule says that IF a local station demands it, the cable system must carry the local station in its basic tier of service, and that neither the cable system nor the station can charge extra for it. > > What we have here is that our enterprising local station is waiving its rights under the rule and telling the cable company to either pay up or stop carrying the station. And an additional unseen complication may be screwing this up, too. I’ve worked recently with several independent telcos here in Ohio which are upgrading their networks from old twisted-pair copper to FTTx. When their new fiber plant is in place, they will begin offering video services. To prepare for the transition, my company has worked with the various television station owners to help obtain contracts and build channel lineups for the telcos. I’ve seen more than a couple contracts from the television stations which have incorporated into the re-transmission agreement, a clause stating they cannot be compensated less per subscriber than any other local affiliate. Thus, if CBS is trying to raise their price, your cable carrier may have more contracts with other affiliated stations (ABC, NBC, Fox) which will also need to be adjusted. ---
**Author:** ![Student\_Driver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3da27b/32.png) [@Student\_Driver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Student_Driver)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2008, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-fuck-no-more-cbs-in-st-louis/478452/23 "2008-12-24T17:53:16Z")
> [@spooje](#): > > Get a dish. You’ll be glad you did. > > I wish I could but my apartment building doesn’t allow dishes. I have Time Warner. ☹ IANAL: If your apartment has a private balcony, patio, garden, or other private-use area, then you can have a dish under 1 meter in diameter installed there, regardless of lease restrictions. The FCC’s amended rules allowing dishes overrides local laws and landlord restrictions. [Link.](http://www.fcc.gov/mb/facts/otard.html) ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2008, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-fuck-no-more-cbs-in-st-louis/478452/24 "2008-12-24T18:22:45Z")
Looks like [negotiations have started back up.](http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/business/stories.nsf/developmenteconomy/story/EA58670CE1E4CAA5862575290013E950?OpenDocument) Of the dozens of blog comments I’ve read for both St. Louis and Dallas, it seems that most of the posters are taking the cable company’s side. Those that don’t mostly just seem to hate the cable company rather than support the local stations. ---
**Author:** ![2sense](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/2/e47774/32.png) [@2sense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/2sense)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2008, 4:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-fuck-no-more-cbs-in-st-louis/478452/25 "2008-12-27T04:16:49Z")
So the cable company is going to forgo showing the AFC playoffs this January? That doesn’t sound good even though St. Louis is an NFC town. Look to see this dispute resolved no latter than Feb. 7, 2010 when CBS is broadcasting Superbowl 44. ---
**Author:** ![cinehead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e79b87/32.png) [@cinehead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cinehead)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2008, 10:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-fuck-no-more-cbs-in-st-louis/478452/26 "2008-12-27T10:27:16Z")
> [@2sense](#): > > So the cable company is going to forgo showing the AFC playoffs this January? That doesn’t sound good even though St. Louis is an NFC town. Look to see this dispute resolved no latter than Feb. 7, 2010 when CBS is broadcasting Superbowl 44. Read more carefully, it’s not the cable company that’s pulling the signal, it’s the local station that pulling it’s own signal from the cable system. ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2008, 3:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-fuck-no-more-cbs-in-st-louis/478452/27 "2008-12-31T03:55:18Z")
Charter and Belo announced a tentative agreement yesterday that includes St. Louis, Dallas, Houston, New Orleans, Seattle and about 6 other cities. Let’s see when my next cable rate hike comes through. ---
**Author:** ![bdgr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a87d85/32.png) [@bdgr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bdgr)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2008, 5:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-fuck-no-more-cbs-in-st-louis/478452/28 "2008-12-31T05:30:13Z")
> [@Student\_Driver](#): > > IANAL: If your apartment has a private balcony, patio, garden, or other private-use area, then you can have a dish under 1 meter in diameter installed there, regardless of lease restrictions. The FCC’s amended rules allowing dishes overrides local laws and landlord restrictions. [Link.](http://www.fcc.gov/mb/facts/otard.html) Yep…Landlords depend on people not knowing this, but they Cannot keep you from installing a small dish in most cases. ---
**Author:** ![Tinkertoy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f19dbf/32.png) [@Tinkertoy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tinkertoy)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2008, 7:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-fuck-no-more-cbs-in-st-louis/478452/29 "2008-12-31T07:13:33Z")
Dish and Cable One are both having the same kind of pissing match with local networks in Idaho. But then a large percentage of Idahoans will not have any choice but Dishnetwork if they want locals here. A very large part of the state is rural, can’t get cable and thanks to all the mountains have been informed that they won’t get locals even with antenna or converter. Directv doesn’t provide locals because the cost of launching a spot beam satallite is too expensive to make it worth it for such a sparsly populated state. They aren’t subsidized by the government like Dishnetwork is. ---
**Author:** ![Bridget\_Burke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7cd45c/32.png) [@Bridget\_Burke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bridget_Burke)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2008, 10:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-fuck-no-more-cbs-in-st-louis/478452/30 "2008-12-31T10:22:28Z")
> [@kunilou](#): > > Charter and Belo announced a tentative agreement yesterday that includes St. Louis, Dallas, Houston, New Orleans, Seattle and about 6 other cities. > > Let’s see when my next cable rate hike comes through. Yup. I followed the link in the OP; now, it says \*KMOV’s parent company Belo Corp. has reached a tentative agreement with Charter Communications regarding carrying KMOV’s signal on their cable systems. That means that KMOV and CBS programming should continue to be carried on Charter without any interruption of service well into the future. KMOV and Charter both appreciate your patience through this period of negotiation.\* Which makes me happy, since Houston’s CBS station also belongs to Belo. After Hurricane Ike, I was fortunate in having power restored in less than 24 hours. But my Comcast cable was down for almost a week. Channel 11 had 24 hour storm & storm aftermath coverage. (Reminder to self: Order that Digital Box now!) And Comcast will probably be raising its rates, no matter what happens… ---
**Author:** ![Runestar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/74df32/32.png) [@Runestar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Runestar)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2008, 2:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-fuck-no-more-cbs-in-st-louis/478452/31 "2008-12-31T14:15:45Z")
> [@eenerms](#): > > Last fall it happened in Indianapolis area IIRC. Don’t know if they ever got it back..that was Brighthouse though. We did. Took a month or more though. …and we never did get back the local CBS affiliate’s local weather channel, which I dearly miss. ---
**Author:** ![miamouse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ad7895/32.png) [@miamouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/miamouse)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2008, 2:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-fuck-no-more-cbs-in-st-louis/478452/32 "2008-12-31T14:50:30Z")
It’s happening all over: [http://www.multichannel.com/article/CA6618118.html](http://www.multichannel.com/article/CA6618118.html)? Broadcasting is having trouble selling ads, just like every other industry out there. This is a way to make up some of what they are losing. ---
**Author:** ![fluiddruid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/c2a13f/32.png) [@fluiddruid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fluiddruid)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2008, 4:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-fuck-no-more-cbs-in-st-louis/478452/33 "2008-12-31T16:08:05Z")
> [@gravitycrash](#): > > KMOV is going to lose this battle. And lose it big. Who the hell doesn’t have cable or a satellite dish anymore? They have no bargaining strength at all. Young people are increasingly looking to the Internet for entertainment. Why pay for cable when you can pay $10 a month to Netflix and download unlimited streaming video? Hulu, Joost and many other sites provide programming for free. I don’t have cable TV or satellite and I don’t miss it. Then again, I’m probably not in the CBS demographic. ---
**Author:** ![Snickers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/5daacb/32.png) [@Snickers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snickers)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2008, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-fuck-no-more-cbs-in-st-louis/478452/34 "2008-12-31T16:23:04Z")
We almost (maybe?) had this happen up here, except with Comcast and the local NBC affiliate, KARE. We got the same note that there might be an interruption and that the two parties were working on a solution to keep it on the Comcast lineup. I think it got resolved, but I’m not 100% certain - we rarely watch network TV, and haven’t watched any TV in the last week or so at all, so I haven’t checked it out to see if it’s still there. ---
**Author:** ![bubba\_jr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e95f7d/32.png) [@bubba\_jr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bubba_jr)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2009, 3:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-fuck-no-more-cbs-in-st-louis/478452/35 "2009-01-01T03:01:54Z")
> [@aldiboronti](#): > > and Virgin couldn’t come to an agreement. We get cable via Virgin so Is this the same “virgin” high falutin’, plane jumping sack of shit that has been blowing Richardson and in a few hours will jack my sales tax up so that he can get his precious little space port out here in NM. It would be great, except why the hell do I have to pay for some rich sack of shit foreigner to make more money, and rich bastards (really really rich) get to go on a plane flight that goes a little higher and lands in the same fricken’ spot. Thank god Richardson is the secretary of commerce, he’ll give the whole fucking country away, and make YOU subsidize it. If he can’t give it to Mexico, he’ll give it to the British. I’m sure he’s getting a kickback, fuckin’ asshole. This is the pit, right?? As for the cable companies, screw them, I’ve been reasonably happy with DirecTV. ---
**Author:** ![BJMoose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/5fc32e/32.png) [@BJMoose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BJMoose)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2009, 4:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-fuck-no-more-cbs-in-st-louis/478452/36 "2009-01-01T16:34:54Z")
> [@Runestar](#): > > We did. Took a month or more though. > > …and we never did get back the local CBS affiliate’s local weather channel, which I dearly miss. That sounds like another broadcaster/cable deal that was popular awhile back. Ten or fifteen years age the local commercial affiliates were given a second cable channel (apparently in lieu of compensation) to do with as they liked. The NBC affiliate used theirs for MSNBC (strange in itself); occasionally they would cover it with something like live coverage of the annual gubernatorial State of the State address, but normally it was just MSNBC (I think the local station also had the right to insert local ads into MSNBC instead of the cable company, but I don’t think much ever came of that). Anyway, the other two stations seldom did more with their channels than punch up their weather radars (one, for audio, rebroadcast the local NOAA weather station). This all went away a few years back. I don’t know why. (Also don’t know why the local school system gave up two of its three channels a year ago. One of those channels is still dark.) Anyway, I suspect your local CBS station had a similar arrangement which has gone bye-bye. Maybe they’re getting cash compensation now. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-fuck-no-more-cbs-in-st-louis/478452.md?page=1)