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Affiliates Simulcasting Sister Stations


rkolsen

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I'm curious during out of market breaking news situations how often do affiliates simulcast their sister stations when they're not getting enough information from their network?

 

WBAL seems to be the only station that ever simulcast breaking news in Baltimore. In at least two instances after Hurricane Katrina whenever there was a strong likely hood of a major hurricane making landfall in New Orleans WBAL (and other Hearst stations) simulcast WDSU on their digital sub channels.

 

I may not remember the exact details but during the week long Boston Marathon Bombing manhunt there were initially long running special reports produced by the networks but as the week went on it seemed like less and less was happening in between generics "update" special reports. So as the manhunt was winding down on Thursday and Friday (he was caught Friday PM) WBAL carried a WCVB simulcast in the afternoon sandwiched between NBC News Special Reports on their pain program feed.

 

I am curious if there any legal implications I'm this scenario?

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If the sister station is up on the bird it's a no brainer....

But,

If it's not already up, then somebody needs to book and pay for that sat time, or for that fiber time.

 

Some stations have dedicated "backhauls" via microwave/fiber that can be tapped in larger markets or in station regional networks/station groups.

 

Some markets have "the switch". pool fiber.

 

Unless a station has out of market Direct/Dish tv feeds ,you cannot just "take" the feed from them.

 

If a story is big enough most networks will arrange the time for sat/fiber....but it's all about cost, and who pays.

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It's a rare occurrence. A fiber feed costs a lot more than the benefit you might get from it. FOX News essentially ignored the Boston Marathon bombing for its affiliates on the afternoon it happened. We considered booking a feed from WFXT to carry that afternoon. It's expensive in five-minute chunks. Two hours of fiber would cost thousands of dollars.

 

At Tribune, we have a system called MPLS. A station can route something, on-air signal, a remote feed, towercam, whatever, into MPLS. Every other Tribune station can see it and take it. Only once have I personally put another Tribune's newscast on the air, and that was KFOR for about two minutes during a tornado in Moore, Oklahoma a couple of years ago. Normally if we take something from another Tribune station on MPLS, it is a clean feed from the location of a story.

 

Here in K.C., KCTV carried a few of KMOV's newscasts straight-up during the Ferguson riots.

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It's a rare occurrence. A fiber feed costs a lot more than the benefit you might get from it. FOX News essentially ignored the Boston Marathon bombing for its affiliates on the afternoon it happened. We considered booking a feed from WFXT to carry that afternoon. It's expensive in five-minute chunks. Two hours of fiber would cost thousands of dollars.

 

At Tribune, we have a system called MPLS. A station can route something, on-air signal, a remote feed, towercam, whatever, into MPLS. Every other Tribune station can see it and take it. Only once have I personally put another Tribune's newscast on the air, and that was KFOR for about two minutes during a tornado in Moore, Oklahoma a couple of years ago. Normally if we take something from another Tribune station on MPLS, it is a clean feed from the location of a story.

 

Here in K.C., KCTV carried a few of KMOV's newscasts straight-up during the Ferguson riots.

 

Interesting to know. Must be what KSWB does, since they constantly take the KTLA feed for police chases. It happens mostly during the newscasts (i.e. will take the feed for 5-10 minutes or more depending on the development of the chase).
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What about during severe weather, especially for stations that are in sharing agreements? For example, WKBN, WYTV, and WYFX will simulcast using 27's weather crew and graphics and even the severe weather scroll will say "Storm Team 27".

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What about during severe weather, especially for stations that are in sharing agreements? For example, WKBN, WYTV, and WYFX will simulcast using 27's weather crew and graphics and even the severe weather scroll will say "Storm Team 27".

 

The most cost effective and most practable way would be microwave backhauls for a small regional sharing agreement.

Just route whatever you wish back and forth inside the closed circuts.

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Interesting to know. Must be what KSWB does, since they constantly take the KTLA feed for police chases. It happens mostly during the newscasts (i.e. will take the feed for 5-10 minutes or more depending on the development of the chase).

 

KTLA is up on KU band 24/7 so they just take it "hot".
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