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Report: Charter launching new Spectrum News channels


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I wish Spectrum can start expanding news all across Texas (DFW, Houston, Beaumont, Etc.) besides Austin and San Antonio. I wish it had a better chance to succeed than the long-gone TXCN.

 

I repeat myself, but too bad Comcast serves Houston.

 

Texas would more likely get 24-hour cable news through TEGNA relaunching TXCN or creating another network, but that won’t happen anytime soon.

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So it started two days earlier than the original date.

And it's pretty bad, too. More like something I'd expect to see on Los Angeles pubcaster KCET. Weather has a Weather Channel feel. I hate it. How long until it folds? This is a money loser.

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And it's pretty bad, too. More like something I'd expect to see on Los Angeles pubcaster KCET. Weather has a Weather Channel feel. I hate it. How long until it folds? This is a money loser.

 

What kinds of spots are they running? PSA's ?

 

Does it look like it's sold or is just a bunch of the same ads that get rotated thru the cable system.

 

I thought TW made all kinds of promises about local news coverage to the regulators, so maybe it's only got a 3 year lifespan.

 

Unless they intend to survive on political ads....i'm betting it's all PSA's right now.

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What kinds of spots are they running? PSA's ?

 

Does it look like it's sold or is just a bunch of the same ads that get rotated thru the cable system.

 

I thought TW made all kinds of promises about local news coverage to the regulators, so maybe it's only got a 3 year lifespan.

 

Unless they intend to survive on political ads....i'm betting it's all PSA's right now.

 

Isn't this similar to how the other Spectrum News channels operate?

 

I could be wrong as my experience is only limited to Bay News 9 and NY1.

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What kinds of spots are they running? PSA's ?

 

Does it look like it's sold or is just a bunch of the same ads that get rotated thru the cable system.

 

I thought TW made all kinds of promises about local news coverage to the regulators, so maybe it's only got a 3 year lifespan.

 

Unless they intend to survive on political ads....i'm betting it's all PSA's right now.

Chevy Dealers of Southern California was sponsoring the 2 pm hour. Also saw Jack in the Box & CVS ads.
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Ok,

That's a good set of respectable local sponsors for the launch.

 

Lothar Approves.

This morning I've been watching for about 45 minutes so far. Only one paid spot or psa between 10:45 am & 11:30 am, SoCal Chevy dealers. Everything else is a Spectrum News 1 imaging promo. Multiple in each break mostly for anchors.

 

Weather segments feel like a ripoff of The Weather Channel. The maps popping up from the floor are awkward to view.

 

There are a number of ongoing technical glitches in sound, video and quick flow of one segment to the next but it's no disaster.

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What I heard, The feeds in SoCal are spiltted unto 4.

 

- West LA

 

- East LA/Inland Empire

 

-SFV/Ventura

 

-Orange County/San Diego

 

Which feed do you have if you live and got Spectrum News 1 in SoCal?

 

With the last one, does that effectively mean that San Diego now has its own 24-hour local cable news channel?

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With the last one, does that effectively mean that San Diego now has its own 24-hour local cable news channel?

No. San Diego is primarily Cox Cable not Spectrum. Even in the every 15 minute weathercasts on Spectrum News 1 (or as they call their newscasts, The Beat on 1) in SoCal they don't report on San Diego weather.

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What I heard, The feeds in SoCal are spiltted unto 4.

 

- West LA

 

- East LA/Inland Empire

 

-SFV/Ventura

 

-Orange County/San Diego

 

Which feed do you have if you live and got Spectrum News 1 in SoCal?

West Los Angeles as I live next to UCLA. The local reports span from Downtown, Hollywood through Long Beach and up through Malibu. But I wouldn't call any of the localized news actually news. They're all lifestyle features so far. So far as I can tell, most repeat every 90 minutes.

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If it is as good as NY1 is, then it's all a good thing...

Southern California Spectrum News 1 is nothing like NY1. It has more of a public broadcasting feel - except weather which is exactly the same as The Weather Channel. Many of the localized stories are filed by citizen journalists, also.

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Southern California Spectrum News 1 is nothing like NY1. It has more of a public broadcasting feel - except weather which is exactly the same as The Weather Channel. Many of the localized stories are filed by citizen journalists, also.

Well, they also just launched, too. How are the shows? Is their morning show good? It seems like it.

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Southern California Spectrum News 1 is nothing like NY1. It has more of a public broadcasting feel - except weather which is exactly the same as The Weather Channel. Many of the localized stories are filed by citizen journalists, also.

 

Well...not too sure that's good :o

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  • 2 weeks later...

Spectrum News 1 has launched in Wisconsin...so far in the first half hour I've watched a pretty good weather forecast, nice features you wouldn't see on the regular stations, and pretty 'on point' intros and outros with Milwaukee/Madison/Green Bay scenery (which is how the channel is launching, with three seperate feeds for each market). The advantage of replacing a sports channel outside the Charter legacy market means their sports segments have no nagging issues at all.

The set is a green-screen with a generic city background, and ad mix? Actually not bad...mix of Charter promos, direct, and a few usual advertisers you'd see on the local cable breaks. We'll see how dayside goes, but this thankfully is a much less bumpy launch than WGBA's (my main reference with a news department launch; WDJT hit the ground running and was heavy on early web experimentation, but WGBA started out slooooow).

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Seems like a competent start, but this does not strike me as any sort of a significant news operation. Most of the time, the channel is just the anchor reading news wire stories over B-roll. That is supplemented by their very small number of reporters doing 2 minute or so packaged pieces. I don't get the impression at this time that they're capable or even interested in covering any sort of breaking news. 

This seems like a good channel to keep on TVs in waiting rooms or on digital signage in building lobbies.

ETA: Curiously, I've been watching for about 45 minutes, from 6:45 to 7:30 am, and they haven't had a single sports report.

3 hours ago, mrschimpf said:

The set is a green-screen with a generic city background

It's a physical set with a large display as a backdrop. It appears to be the identical set to Spectrum News 1 Ohio (as seen upthread).

That said, since 95% of time, they use a tight shot of the anchor, there's really no practical difference between that and a green-screen backdrop. 

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On 11/28/2018 at 7:20 AM, LoadStar said:

Seems like a competent start, but this does not strike me as any sort of a significant news operation. Most of the time, the channel is just the anchor reading news wire stories over B-roll. That is supplemented by their very small number of reporters doing 2 minute or so packaged pieces. I don't get the impression at this time that they're capable or even interested in covering any sort of breaking news. 

This seems like a good channel to keep on TVs in waiting rooms or on digital signage in building lobbies.

ETA: Curiously, I've been watching for about 45 minutes, from 6:45 to 7:30 am, and they haven't had a single sports report.

It's a physical set with a large display as a backdrop. It appears to be the identical set to Spectrum News 1 Ohio (as seen upthread).

That said, since 95% of time, they use a tight shot of the anchor, there's really no practical difference between that and a green-screen backdrop. 

Spectrum has nixed regular sports coverage at several stations, including Austin earlier this year.  

http://tvradio.blog.austin360.com/2018/08/28/spectrum-news-austin-scaling-back-sports-coverage/

 

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