Re: HD provided on local cable, but no OTA - how common is this?

x wrote:

Now, one of the affiliates (ABC) is allowing the local cable franchise (Mediacom) to offer their feed in HD to cable subscribers, but is not broadcasting the HD signal over-the-air.


OP here.

I think some clarification is in order.

This affiliate makes a low-power digital over the air signal available now. It is *not* HD, but a digital re-broadcast of their analog broadcast. Again, it is *not* HD.

I understand that there is never going to be a requirement that they broadcast over the air in HD. I merely metioned the response from the station's management as an irony, since "until legally required to do so" amounted to "never". I understood that already.

The thing that's got me going right now is that the station already gets an HD feed from the network, and they have negotiated to pass that feed on to the local cable franchise so that they can re-sell it to cable subscribers. This is *without* broadcasting that same HD feed over-the-air to those of us who do not subscribe to local cable.

If I wanted to, and there was any real reason to do so, I could certainly arrange to pick up their current low-res digital re-broadcast of their analog signal. I already get the equivalent of that by subscribing to DirecTV's spot-beamed local package, however.

I am asking about, and commenting on, what seems to me to be a practice not in the public's best interest - that of the affiliate being the recipient of a perfectly usable HD feed, and of choosing not to broadcast it over the air (by their own admission, possibly "never"), but to profit by re-selling the rights to broadcast it to local cable subscribers, while preventing me from even getting a waiver in order to obtain an equivalent service for myself without forcing me to do business with the local cable franchise.

Hope that is clearer.

PLM
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