Pipe 2SCZ Los Angeles Area Public Broadcasters KLCS & KCET to Share Single Channel

Los Angeles Area Public Broadcasters KLCS & KCET to Share Single Channel

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It's getting a little crowded on that dial: KCET and KLCS are planning to share channel space [to free up airwaves for wireless broadband]. The two public TV stations announced Wednesday that they had begun a partnership to split a single over-the-air broadcast television channel, even as their business and programming operations will remain separate.

Viewers will most likely not notice any difference, because advanced technologies have allowed broadcasters to compress more data into their available channel space than in the past. The remaining bandwidth would be available for a spectrum auction that the Federal Communications Commission plans to hold in 2015. That could mean big money for the stations.
The FCC is facing opposition to the auction plan from the National Association of Broadcasters, which has filed a lawsuit against it in Washington, D.C., complaining that many TV stations would end up with reduced coverage areas during the repackaging, or as a result of being assigned to new broadcast channels.
KLCS was running four standard-definition channels; KCET had one 720p HD channel and three standard-definition channels. By using the latest MPEG-2 encoding technology with statistical multiplexing, the bandwidth can be assigned to the program stream needing it most. Extra bandwidth is often needed during transitions from scene to scene, but if the programming on the eight subchannels is different they shouldn't have a problem giving up bandwidth to the program needing it the most.

KCET currently transmits on UHF Channel 28 with an ERP of 220 kW. KLCS transmits on UHF Channel 41 and has an ERP of 1,000 kW. The station's announcement didn't say which one will give up their channel.
KCET's channel 28 is seems most likely to continue operating, as it has an extensive network of repeaters. But that could also make it the most valuable asset to auction off.
score 0
  • Closed (already posted at SN)
Reply 4 comments

already on soylent (Score: 1)

by zafiro17@pipedot.org on 2014-09-15 12:26 (#2SE5)

already on soylent

Re: already on soylent (Score: 1)

by evilviper@pipedot.org on 2014-09-17 08:27 (#2SG7)

EVERYTHING I've submitted has already been on Soylent... I submitted them there, first. That didn't stop several of them making the front-page of |. just fine, and getting positive comments. And I certainly wouldn't like |. just to be an "overflow" site, of topics Soylent didn't find interesting enough to cover.

Re: already on soylent (Score: 1)

by seriously@pipedot.org on 2014-09-17 10:56 (#2SGE)

well, I think that discussion was covered widely when we imported all SN article here (for a few hours) as a test. Overall, the conclusion of the experiment was something along the lines:
  1. keep |. original, don't copy SN, we can go there to read it if we want
  2. we want articles more tech-oriented than SN & /.
Now I think some articles from SN indeed do have a place here, and I guess that's why yours got accepted. In other words, my opinion on this is: please, by all means, keep sending to the pipe, but be also aware that not all of them fit in and that copy-pastes with a 2-day delay are not that interesting anymore ;-)

ps: I really enjoyed the article on microbial life in the arctic :-)

Re: already on soylent (Score: 1)

by evilviper@pipedot.org on 2014-09-17 19:34 (#2SHB)

I don't have any problem with story rejection... not at all. I just think that "somebody else got there first" shouldn't be a singularly disqualifying offense, unless you really want |. to be a second-class citizen to all other sites, and basically force your readers to go elsewhere. I certainly don't want to see |. copy the junk SN posts, either, but |. shouldn't lose out on any interesting stories just because it isn't always first, here.