Why do outlying cable services drop Pittsburgh stations?
Post-Gazette TV writer Rob Owen answers reader questions online every Friday in Tuned In Journal blog at post-gazette.com/tv. Here’s a selection of recent queries.
Q: We live in Grove City and Armstrong Cable supplies the cable programming. We have seen a move away from the Pittsburgh channels, with programming switching to Youngstown, Ohio. The only Pittsburgh channel we currently receive is KDKA, Channel 2 (CBS). Channels 4 and 11 have been replaced with corresponding Youngstown channels. Can you give any insight on what the rationale is in eliminating the Pittsburgh channels?
— DICK, GROVE CITY
Rob: Pittsburgh stations arenot “must carry” — local market stations a cable company has to carry per government regulations — as Mercer County is part of the Youngstown, Ohio, TV market. Once upon a time, cable companies would carry a second ABC, NBC or CBS channel, but that was before TV stations came to so heavily rely on retransmission payments from cable companies. With TV stations demanding cable operators pay them to pass through their signals, in many cases cable companies will choose to only carry the stations theymust carry.
“The Youngstown network affiliates have always been part of the cable TV package in that area, and historically we were also able to provide access to most Pittsburgh stations as well,” explains Armstrong spokesman Dave Wittman via email. “Unfortunately for consumers in fringe areas like Mercer County all across the country, access to out-of-market signals is vanishing. Armstrong must abideby the multiple federal regulations, especially retransmission consent, that have increasingly made ‘importing’ out-of-market broadcast stations very challenging if not impossible in today’s marketplace. … We continue to offer KDKA to provide access to Pittsburgh/PA news, sports (including local Steelers broadcasts) and weather (as far as I know we are the only cable/satellite provider in Mercer County to offer any Pittsburgh station).”
Q: Just finished watching “Goliath” with Billy Bob Thornton. Thoroughly enjoyed it and wondering if we’re going to see more episodes down the line.
— CRYSTAL VIA
EMAIL Rob: Amazon renewed “Goliath” for a third season that’s expected to debut later this year or in 2020, but no premiere date has been announced.
Q: I’ve noticed a lot of TV series, especially those of the dramatic kind, air their season finales in February, March or April instead of the usual month of May. (e.g. “How to Get Away With Murder,” “A Million Little Things,” etc.). Why has this changed?
— JEFF, SQUIRREL
HILL Rob: ABC, more than any other broadcaster, has decided to produce more series with fewer episodes in each, especially for new shows. I suppose the thinking is they figure they can understand if a show is working in 15 episodes rather than 22. But also some showrunners want to make a shorter run of episodes, like a cable series, because the thinking is the quality of the episodes will be better. That’s the case with NBC’s “This Is Us,” and Viola Davis’ deal for “How to Get Away With Murder” also stipulates fewer than the traditional 22 episodes per season.
Q: I’ll keep this short without philosophizing too much. I’m 40 years old and it’s been 10 years since I’ve watched TV. It was the most liberating thing I have ever done. No news, no shows, no sports, even no Netflix or any other online streaming. Driving around my neighborhood in the evening, I see TVs on in every house — the idiot boxes of America. You are in a position to tell your viewers that there is NOTHING on TV that is worth a second of their lives. Set the sheep free, Rob. You can do it.
— JOE VIA EMAIL
Rob: Except why would I when there’s more good, quality content than ever among the approximately 500 TV series expected to debut in 2019? Look, I get not watching the news on TV and opting to read the news in print or online instead. That makes sense to me. And if I’m being honest, I do miss reading novels because of the deluge of novelistic series on TV that capture my personal and professional attention. But obviously there is a lot of TV worth watching, from “Succession” on HBO to “Grantchester” on PBS’s “Masterpiece.”