Me-TV To Debut on Channel 3.1 in NYC Market in Spring

A press release from Me-TV's website says it will start broadcasting over the from Channel 3.1 in the second quarter of 2014...

http://metvnetwork.com/assets/press...ord - PMCM Me-TV Press Release 1 27 14NMK.pdf

Even though KVNV-DT will be licensed to Middletown NJ, it will have its transmitter at Four Times Square. Why does it have K call letters? Because the owners got the FCC to allow them to move the city of license from a small town out west to New Jersey because currently NJ has no VHF TV station. (I suppose they want to keep the K call sign because it will be listed first alphabetically, followed by all the TV stations beginning with a W. And its unique.)

If you remember, former Sen. Bill Bradley worked on legislation to get NJ a VHF TV station because most North Jersey viewers only saw TV from New York, or in South Jersey, from Philadelphia. When the then-owners of Channel 9 got in trouble with the FCC, they were able to save their license by moving it to Secaucus.

Today WWOR-TV still calls itself Channel 9 but it really transmits its digital signal on Channel 38. So New Jersey and Delaware have no commercial TV stations actually broadcasting on VHF. This loophole also allowed this same group to buy another TV station in a small community in the West and move it to the antenna farm near Philadelphia, licensing it to Wilmington DE, scheduled to sign on later this month (3/14). (That one also has K call letters, although Philadelphia oddly enough has an existing TV station with a K call sign, CBS-owned KYW-TV.)

NYC's nearest Me-TV station is WZME Bridgeport CT, which currently airs on many CT, NY and NJ cable systems. I suppose that station will continue to supply Me-TV in CT, but the new Channel 3 station will become a Must-Carry station and NY and NJ cable systems will have to dedicate a channel for it.

I'm actually not happy with this move because my Time-Warner operation doesn't take its signal from WZME. It comes directly from the network, so the schedule is not preempted by a lot of infomercials that WZME airs. I'd imagine if my cable system is forced to start airing KVNV-DT, they'll likely take away some of the ME shows for their own infomercials.

That will disappoint ME.

NJ actually does have a VHF station currently broadcasting, WACP from Atlantic City. This actually went on the air due to WWOR moving to UHF. The FCC allowed this station and another one in DE to go on the air and then denied the two stations from out West moving East. It went to court and Press won. NJ and DE either have or will have two VHF stations when all are on the air. The Me TV station licensed to Wilmington, DE, KJWP, actually went on the air back in November 2013. Comcast, DirecTv, and Dish down in Philly have all picked it up by 3/1 when our other Me TV station stopped broadcasting Me, WFMZ's 69.3 subchannel from Allentown, PA. Verizon is scheduled to pick up KJWP on 3/14. Currently, KJWP down in Philly is broadcasting Me 24/7. I can pick it up ota until FiOS pick it up. And by the way, it is broadcasting from the antenna farm that is actually in Philly. The antenna farm is in the Roxborough neighborhood of Philadelphia so, it is in the city proper.

Gregg. said:

A press release from Me-TV's website says it will start broadcasting over the from Channel 3.1 in the second quarter of 2014...
I'm actually not happy with this move because my Time-Warner operation doesn't take its signal from WZME. It comes directly from the network, so the schedule is not preempted by a lot of infomercials that WZME airs. I'd imagine if my cable system is forced to start airing KVNV-DT, they'll likely take away some of the ME shows for their own infomercials.

Click to expand...

Channel 3.1 WILL NOT be pre-empting anything. They're becoming a FullTime 24/7 affiliate of ME-TV.

If anyone has the right to be pissed off it's the people who live in Connecticut and get ME-TV via WZME 43.1 in Bridgeport. WZME (like WFMZ in Allentown) is being forced to Drop ME-TV once the new ME-TV affiliate Channel 3.1 in NYC launches. WZME is on Cable is a large part of Connecticut. It's on Digital Channel 75 on COX in Southington, Meriden, Cheshire, Manchester, Newington, Rocky Hill, and Wethersfield. It's on Channel 15 on Comcast/Xfinity in Waterbury, Seymour, Terryville/Plymouth (and a lot of other cities and towns in The Naugatuck Valley). Plus cable subscribers in Fairfield and New Haven Counties. (I don't know if the cable systems in Fairfield and New Haven Counties will pick up the new ME-TV affiliate from NYC). The only people in CT who will get to keep ME-TV once WZME drops it are those who have AT&T U-Verse. They carry a national feed on Channel 136, I think.

Sorry to hear that. I wonder, why would they not allow WZME to continue offering Me-TV in CT? It's not like there are many places in CT other than Greenwich and Stamford that can pick up a decent signal from NYC... and even in those two towns we don't know if Channel 3.1 will carry that far. And Me-TV will lose viewers among all those cable systems in CT that aren't going to pick up a VHF station from New York. We know the lower on the VHF dial, the harder it is for DT signals to get out. I can just about see the Empire State Building from my home and yet I know VHF signals from there (WABC-TV, WPIX, WNET) don't come in as well as NYC stations on UHF. Doesn't make sense.

I'm surprised that KVNV-DT will air no infomercials. Maybe they're saying that for now. We'll see if the sales of local spots produces enough revenue for the owners. When it comes to Cozi, NBC owns it, and yet WNBC runs early morning infomercials, some newscasts and the very recent Cash Cab show, which I assume block some of the national Cozi network.

I wonder what will become of WZME? My guess is they go back to infomercials, foreign language, or religious programming. Funny how they went through all the trouble of even changing their call letters (from WSAH) to reflect their Me-TV affiliation.

Im alittle pissed about this!I was thinking of getting rid of cable since im able to get wzme over the air and now I may need to rethink that option.I did ask a question about this on Metvs facebook and the answer I got is that the new station has to carry metv on all cable and sat stations in the present viewing area which includes CT and means Comcast will be picking up that station when it goes on air.

stanleyjohn,

I'm sure when they say "present viewing area" they refer specifically to the New York DMA, which includes Bridgeport and that area but not New Haven or the rest of Connecticut.

I would also note that if the Media-General/LIN deal goes through, Media-General is a big partner for Me-TV. Wouldn't be surprising if WTNH or WCTX picked it up after that.

- Trip

tripinva said:

stanleyjohn,

I'm sure when they say "present viewing area" they refer specifically to the New York DMA, which includes Bridgeport and that area but not New Haven or the rest of Connecticut.

I would also note that if the Media-General/LIN deal goes through, Media-General is a big partner for Me-TV. Wouldn't be surprising if WTNH or WCTX picked it up after that.

- Trip

Click to expand...

Thanks Trip!They didn't say present viewing area!i just interpreting it as that.Your correct about the NY DMA.I bet wzme isnt likeing this also but what can they do.Well at least for now I can still get RTV ota via wzme unless they drop it.Heres hoping that Metv will try hard to keep CT.

I wonder if WZME will move RTV to the main channel, 43.1? Although the RTV schedule is so weak now I can't find a single show worth watching.

Gregg. said:

Sorry to hear that. I wonder, why would they not allow WZME to continue offering Me-TV in CT? It's not like there are many places in CT other than Greenwich and Stamford that can pick up a decent signal from NYC... and even in those two towns we don't know if Channel 3.1 will carry that far. And Me-TV will lose viewers among all those cable systems in CT that aren't going to pick up a VHF station from New York. We know the lower on the VHF dial, the harder it is for DT signals to get out. I can just about see the Empire State Building from my home and yet I know VHF signals from there (WABC-TV, WPIX, WNET) don't come in as well as NYC stations on UHF. Doesn't make sense.

I'm surprised that KVNV-DT will air no infomercials. Maybe they're saying that for now. We'll see if the sales of local spots produces enough revenue for the owners. When it comes to Cozi, NBC owns it, and yet WNBC runs early morning infomercials, some newscasts and the very recent Cash Cab show, which I assume block some of the national Cozi network.

Click to expand...

They probably will air infomercials. KJWP, their sister station in Philly, has started to preempt some shows in the morning.

While there is a loss with infomercials pre-empting some of the schedule, the Dish and DirecTV customers locally will get Me-TV included, because the station will be part of their package because of must-carry.

ding12 said:

While there is a loss with infomercials pre-empting some of the schedule, the Dish and DirecTV customers locally will get Me-TV included, because the station will be part of their package because of must-carry.

Click to expand...

The same is true for all the cable companies too. Directv already has Me-TV in the NYC area because they carry WZME on channel 43.

WZME will will still be on DirecTV and FiOS and the NY and CT cable systems that carry it (i don't think any NJ cable Systems carried it) but will lose it ME TV affiliation once KVNV moves to Middletown/New York much like WFMZ DT4 did when KJWP moved to Wilmington/Philadephia.

Dan FM said:

WZME will will still be on DirecTV and FiOS and the NY and CT cable systems that carry it (i don't think any NJ cable Systems carried it) but will lose it ME TV affiliation once KVNV moves to Middletown/New York much like WFMZ DT4 did when KJWP moved to Wilmington/Philadephia.

Click to expand...

WZME is on Verizon Fios (ch 19) in NJ. I don't believe they are on Comcast or Cablevision in NJ.

I saw somewhere that Comcast of Central NJ Middlesex to add KVNV 3 MeTV on July 31st.So is this the possible date that WZME drops METV? Still hoping that Comcast here in CT will pick up the new station.Heres a link! http://www.**********.com/forum/r29...-NJ-Middlesex-to-add-KVNV-3-MeTV-on-July-31st

stanleyjohn said:

I saw somewhere that Comcast of Central NJ Middlesex to add KVNV 3 MeTV on July 31st.So is this the possible date that WZME drops METV? Still hoping that Comcast here in CT will pick up the new station.Heres a link! http://www.**********.com/forum/r29...-NJ-Middlesex-to-add-KVNV-3-MeTV-on-July-31st

Click to expand...

I'm surprised Comcast already announced a date. I rescanned my TV today and KVNV is not even on the air yet. Usually stations are on the air for at least a little while before the cable companies pick them up.

Personally I hope WCTX 59 in New Haven becomes the ME-TV affiliate for Hartford/New Haven. LIN-TV has been bought out by Media General and MG already has existing deals with ME-TV including in Providence (of course MG will have to spin off WJAR). I'm sick of all the technical problems plaguing WZME lately. Several times in the last few weeks I've gone to watch something only to find ME-TV frozen. And I don't know if it was a problem at WZME or at ME-TV, but about 3 weeks ago I was watching the 4:30PM episode of Adam-12 and the same 10 second segment kept playing over and over again with noise distortion in the background for more than 5 minutes. I turned it off and at about 4:48 I turned it back on and it was fixed.

Is there any recent news on when KVNV will sign on the air? It was supposed to be by the end of Q2 but that has come and gone.

ansky212 said:

Is there any recent news on when KVNV will sign on the air? It was supposed to be by the end of Q2 but that has come and gone.

Click to expand...

July 31st. And they're supposedly giving up the KVNV calls.

The only way to get METV in CT after july 31 is by satellite or Universe.I chatted with Comcast and they have no plans on getting metv as I speak and I think cox is feeling the same way! A real bummer!!!