Several U.S. stations attempting to get Retrans fees ... in Canada.

[Viper550 292]

http://www.theglobea...article5105495/

 

WIVB/WNLO, WDIV, KSTP, and WHEC are banding together to try and get compensation for their carriage by Canadian television providers.

 

Notably, here in Saskatchewan, pretty much all the providers carry Boston and Seattle stations (except for Shaw, who uses Detroit and Spokane)

[T.L. Hughes 903]

The problem here is the fact that Canadian cable and satellite providers commonly replace network shows (and the occasional syndicated program) on a U.S. station with the network feed of a Canadian station through simultaneous substitution rules. Canadian networks, broadcast stations and specialty cable channels typically run a program in the same timeslot as its U.S. broadcast in order to invoke the rule so as to keep ad dollars in the Canadian market. So the approximately three dozen U.S. stations (major network affiliates like those mentioned above and superstations like WGN, KTLA and WSBK) available in Canada over-the-air and through cable and satellite would be compensated for signal carriage, even though providers will often replace programs from the U.S. station's broadcast feed with the feed of a domestic network.

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US stations from smaller markets benefit from having a Canadian audience.

 

For example, 5 Spokane stations (KREM, KXLY, KHQ, KSPS, KAYU) are available on cable and satellite for (the most part) Western Canadian viewers. While the Spokane market has a metro population of 473,000+ people, their potential reach actually goes up to 2 million + if you include Calgary (1 million), Edmonton (1 million) and other smaller cities in Western Canada. This is evident in the following ways:

 

- Separate feeds are uplinked to satellite for Canadian viewers featuring ads from Canadian businesses (outside of simsubbed hours, mostly during syndicated programming)

- Local newscasts normally feature Canadian locations in their weather forecasts

- Station identification includes some Canadian cities eg) KSPS Spokane/Calgary/Edmonton