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Originally Posted by wa2ise
I see that RTN appears on some DirecTV and Dish network satellite channels. Which would mean this signal is sprayed all across the country. Or do they have some mechanism to deny RTN from some satellite subscribers? I'm pretty much a died-in-the-wool OTA TV watcher...
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RTN may be distributed nationwide via satellite; however, my point was that the network is not carried everywhere on OTA television stations or cable systems, which leaves a very large part of the US without access to the channel. Case in point: Here in Ohio, there is presently only one RTN affiliate, in Toledo (northwestern part of the state). The station, and its digital subchannel, is carried on cable and is available OTA in Toledo, of course, but no one else in Ohio can see RTN except via satellite.
This situation exists elsewhere in the country as well, even in large cities such as New York City (America's #1 media market) and Chicago, so it is not unique to one region. There is no excuse, IMHO, for RTN not to be carried on cable in New York, and the greater Chicago area is large enough as well that it could support an RTN affiliate on one of its big network-operated stations' digital subchannels. As it stands at the moment, the nearest RTN affiliate to Chicago is in Rockford, according to the network's affiliate map. It is entirely possible that Chicago-area cable systems could be importing RTN from a digital subchannel in Rockford or elsewhere.
I do not think, however, that the foregoing would be possible or even legal in Ohio under FCC rules, since the nearest RTN affiliate to Cleveland, as I mentioned, is over 100 miles away--and cable systems in major metropolitan areas are likely forbidden to carry cable channels from that distance, unless the station involved is an affiliate of a major network and the cable system serves an area that receives few or no local stations. The only way I can see every cable system here carrying RTN would be for the systems to pick up the raw satellite feed from RTN itself and distributing it over the cable systems' own facilities.
RTN states on its web site that it is always adding affiliates, but I have seen very little evidence of that lately, according to their affiliate map. Perhaps their thinking is that anyone outside the local broadcast range of an RTN affiliate will be receiving it on cable or satellite, so why even bother adding new stations? If this is in fact their rationale, they really should not, IMHO, state so boldly that they are always adding new stations. From what I've seen so far on the affiliate map, this isn't so, or else the network is adding affiliates so slowly it isn't funny.