It's the opposite with digital TV.
The actual channels may be different now, though.
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1995-1996 Affiliation Shuffle
- Thread starter e-dawg
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The actual channels may be different now, though.
Do channel numbers really matter any more?
That's what I meant, during its days as an independent superstation, it already had a newscast.
So? As far as the antenna and receiver are concerned, the RF channel is what matters because that is where the signals are. Virtual channels are strictly for the convenience of the general public, to identify stations using their old familiar analog channel numbers. The system works quite well since the TV does the translation work.
Viewers in Kansas City only require a UHF antenna, while St. Joseph needs both VHF-Hi and UHF. And if I read rabbitears.info correctly, all four KC network affiliates run a million watts ERP.
On receivers that 99% of the public are using, regardless of OTA, cable, or satellite, they absolutely do matter. They're how the stations market themselves. Even though they're irrelevant when streaming, they're still how stations are identified, even more than call letters in most cases nowadays.
I wouldn't go as high as 99% anymore.
Legacy channel numbers seem to matter these days to maybe 75% of markets. There are a growing number where stations have figured out that viewers see them at different spots all over the dial (cable and satellite positioning, for instance, in areas with high penetration), and we're seeing those stations go to different forms of branding, whether it's just calls or network/city.
This is especially true for stations that may not even have existed in the analog era. If you're NBC Fort Wayne (WPTA 21.2) and you're on five different channel numbers depending on the system, you just want to be "NBC Fort Wayne" and leave it there.
For legacy stations that have spent 60 or 75 years building an identity around their channel number? That's a different story. Ask 100 people in Denver where they go for 60 Minutes and 98 of them will say "channel 4."
You don't throw away that kind of consumer recognition just for the hell of it. (Which makes it odd that CBS has chosen to do just that for what's now branded as "CBS Colorado.")
Legacy channel numbers seem to matter these days to maybe 75% of markets. There are a growing number where stations have figured out that viewers see them at different spots all over the dial (cable and satellite positioning, for instance, in areas with high penetration), and we're seeing those stations go to different forms of branding, whether it's just calls or network/city.
This is especially true for stations that may not even have existed in the analog era. If you're NBC Fort Wayne (WPTA 21.2) and you're on five different channel numbers depending on the system, you just want to be "NBC Fort Wayne" and leave it there.
For legacy stations that have spent 60 or 75 years building an identity around their channel number? That's a different story. Ask 100 people in Denver where they go for 60 Minutes and 98 of them will say "channel 4."
You don't throw away that kind of consumer recognition just for the hell of it. (Which makes it odd that CBS has chosen to do just that for what's now branded as "CBS Colorado.")
They're pushing streaming pretty hard.
Note also that many PBS member stations identify more strongly with locality (e.g. Rocky Mountain PBS) than by channel number.
By the way, over the last couple of years, I've been in quite a few Hilton-affiliated hotels, and many of them use the same type of TV program selection. Programs are arranged alphabetically and local affiliates are identified by network - not by channel number. So, for example, the local ABC affiliate is nestled next to A&E, regardless of whether you're in Des Moines or Portland or Denver or Frostbite Falls. This may seem more familiar to viewers accustomed to streaming.
I get it newer TV's are set up by app names not by channel numbers. Also there are TV apps that are setup by carriage agreements like YouTube TV, Fubo. Channel numbers are how places like FuboTV, YouTube TV, Pluto TV Hulu Live TV and Tubi are organized.
The median demos for people who identify by Channel number or App Name I wish we have data for that one though.
KPIX-5 and Pittsburgh's KDKA-2 were already CBS affiliates prior to Group W/Westinghouse buying CBS.
YouTube TV does not recognize OTA channel numbers other than by the station logos they display. Channels can be arranged any way one prefers. After all, channel numbers are irrelevant on the Internet.
Personally, I go by OTA channel number, then sports channels. Almost everything else gets blanked out. But that is strictly my choice.
Typically TV stations these days only identify themselves visually with their callsign, virtual channel & COL as that's what viewers recognize. Only the FCC cares about full identification
The typical viewer doesn't recognize (Or CARE TO recognize) some channel which the station may be transmitting on RF wise. Viewers only care about the virtual channel (Which only in VERY FEW cases even today) are one & the same
However The Roku Channel (And maybe other Smart TV streaming services too) use channels & network logos (Such as they are on the Internet) on their TVs though I often wonder why...
The one time that the RF channel can matter is when a viewer is buying an antenna for off-air reception. In that instance, knowing that the station that shows up as 8.1 is actually transmitting on RF channel 30 would be useful in knowing what type of antenna to get.