From: Ken Kovats in San Antonio (former Cleveland resident)Q: Here's another question I am wondering about...When everybody switches to digital in February, does this mean that WKYC will only be available on the Digital 2 or 25, or whatever channel the FCC gives you? Does this mean the end of branding y'all as "Channel 3 News" and becoming just "WKYC news" or Channel 2-1 News or whatever...?
It would be interesting to see how local stations will be positioning themselves to stand out among the competition as we get closer to DTV. Any insights?
A: Unless something changes between now and February, stations will likely continue to position themselves in the same way you are used to. For example.. Channel 3 News will continue to be "Channel 3 News" even on digital channel 17. (This will be our new channel as we move from digital channel 2 in February).
In the analog world, there is a direct relationship between the channel number and the RF frequency. In the digital world, this relationship becomes indirect (but linked) using an electronic system called PSIP (Program and System Information Protocol). You can read more on the specifics at http://www.psip.org/
The PSIP is data that is transmitted along with the station's digital TV signal to alert your new digital TV where to find a station on its tuner. The PSIP identifies both the DTV channel and for now, the NTSC (analog) channel. Your TVs will electronically associate the two channel numbers making it easy for viewers to tune to our station(s), even if that do not know the new digital channel number. Thus, the digital channels really become irrelevant.
Because stations won't want to lose audience, they will continue to brand themselves the same way as you current see...because, well because they can! No one is telling us otherwise.
You can read more of the original article: CLICK HERE
You can email your questions to me: fmacek@wkyc.com
