KOTV says the FCC requires them to have scroll

[Ibanez]

I'm calling BS on that.

Travis just said it on the air before the football game started. Said they couldn't show the game in HD because of an FCC requirement to have the warnings and scroll on the screen.

Funny...I just watched a game on Fox and they didn't have the map, scroll, radar, warnings, etc...on during the game. The only broke in during commercials.

KOTV sucks when it comes to this sort of thing. Watching the football game yesterday they did the same thing and took up game time to tell us NOTHING. Stupidly several times they would go to a commercial, let 2 or 3 play, then break in with a weather report. More than once that caused missed plays during the game. In fact it once caused 3 plays to be missed. Came back from their report and the team was punting because they had talked during the team's entire possesion.

So...show me the FCC rule that says they are required to put all that crap on the screen. I don't believe it.

[RecycleMichael]

I heard him say that too.

I was amazed that they could not show a program in HD because of a weather scroll.

I don't have HD televisions so I would not have noticed, but if I did I would be very disappointed.

[Ibanez]

I'm sitting here watching the game on my glorious 56 inch widescreen HD television.

Sadly the picture looks like my memories of watching Uncle Zeb on the 19 inch Zenith my parents had when I was a kid.

I've been looking at the FCC regulations and I can find NOTHING that says they are required to display the scroll constantly.

[Ibanez]

Idiots just did it again. Broke in after commericals had been playing and kept blabbing so long they missed coming back to the game and caused everyone to miss a 15 yard run.

[MH2010]

I'm calling BS also.  I just watched the football game on FOX in HD and they never scrolled.

This sucks. I wanna watch New England and San Diego in HD. Games like this is why I bought my 60 inch HD TV.

[billintulsa]

I am not an attorney, nor am I an expert when it comes to broadcast law.

That being said. . .

From the way I understand it, most FCC regulations deal only with the technical end of a broadcast transmission, and outside of "community standards" set up for anything vulgar (that in itself is a whole other debate topic), the FCC really doesn't care much about program content.

There is something about operating a station with the "public interest" in mind, but there are no (to the best of my knowledge) requirements regarding television stations rolling any kind of crawl for any kind of reason.

[sgrizzle]

I call BS on this too. There is no way they would require an HD transmission, viewable on HD only sets, only show weather data in SD.

That's like saying the FCC has ruled all racing games on PS3 must be 8-bit Atari versions.

[patric]

quote:Originally posted by billintulsa
There is something about operating a station with the "public interest" in mind, but there are no (to the best of my knowledge) requirements regarding television stations rolling any kind of crawl for any kind of reason.

If the truth be told, the FCC is into everything from antenna height and types of modulation to  Family Viewing and "wardrobe malfunctions", but what technology a licensee (station) uses to dazzle it's viewers with it's meteorological prowess is pretty much the station's choice (one exception is closed captioning, which is required).  

That one station replaces commercials with weather information while another looks like Wald Disney threw up on the screen has more to do with marketing and style than regulation, as long as each continues to serve the "public interest, convenience or necessity".

Watch the station(s) that serve you best, and make no secret of it.  Pretty soon the numbers will catch up and you will have affected change.

[DM]

I just have to say Fox sucks at airing football games. Great games yesterday!!

As for the topic, I really dont care about the scrolling at the bottom. I would rather have that then the Black or Fox screen during the game.

[aoxamaxoa]

KOTV must have equipment deficiencies. A number of us called in to complain. HD can be addictive. But FOX ran HD without a crawl across the screen which indicates one channel is cheating and/or one channel is lying.

[sgrizzle]

quote:Originally posted by PRH

I watch KOTV because they are less interested in covering Jesus.

My sign says "Hippies use back door"

Figured I'd tell you in advance before you tried to come in the front.

[BKDotCom]

what's with "2 works for you" shrinking the program down to about 2/3 of the screen.. with a huge vertical banner to the left, a honkin scroller area across the bottom and a map over the program.
All to convey to the viewer, it's cold and icy outside,  all your rodeo events have been canceled.

[aoxamaxoa]

quote:Originally posted by sgrizzle

quote:Originally posted by PRH

I watch KOTV because they are less interested in covering Jesus.

My sign says "Hippies use back door"

Figured I'd tell you in advance before you tried to come in the front.

Grizzley, play nice. Some of us take pride in peace.

[Wrinkle]

I think what they were really saying is the weather equipment hasn't been converted to HD yet, so, in order to show weather stuff, they couldn't also broadcast in HD.

Weather updates/warnings are considered bandwidth fullfilment by license holders. But, around here, it's more like the station manager left the keys with the weather guys.

I do want to know when _my_ house is going to blow away, though. I presume others would, too.

Where the line is crossed is pretty subjective.

[patric]

In a nutshell, how each station implements FCC regulation has a lot to do with the hardware they elect to use:


"Both KOTV and KOKI (FOX23) had to cope with the ice storm and National Football League playoffs.

Ron Harig, KOTV's news director, said some fans watching Sunday's football games in high-definition on the station's digital channel were upset by the weather interruptions. The station received about 100 complaints via e-mail and phone from viewers who were upset about the crawl and map being on the screen during the games.

But Weaver said Monday that the map and crawl were required by the Federal Communications Commission.

"Any station is required to broadcast emergency management information, whether there is severe weather, some sort of fire, a tanker spill, noxious gas, etc.," he said.

Weaver said that "what many viewers don't understand is that even if we could maintain everything in high def, the bug and the crawl still have to be there, because it's emergency management information."

He said some irate viewers who e-mailed the station reported that Fox affiliate KOKI (FOX23) "didn't do the bug during the game."

"We were advised by legal counsel that we were supposed to do it all the time," he said.

"The FCC has clamped down on us and said we have to graphically show it or have it crawl across the screen to make sure there is enough information that a person who is hearing-impaired knows what's going on."

KOKI (FOX23) station officials did not interpret the FCC's mandates in the same way.

News Director Melanie Henry said her station also provided weather coverage on both its analog and digital channels.

"The FCC requires that we advise the public, and we chose the route that involved primarily cut-ins during commercial time, because we had the NFL playoffs, as well," Henry said. "Those cut-ins are in standard definition, not in HD."

Because the station didn't interrupt the games, "the response we received was, 'Thank you for understanding what we want to watch but providing us with the necessary information as we needed it,' " Henry said."
http://www.tulsaworld.com/NewsStory.asp?ID=070116_Ne_A9_TVcop60069_0


I for one wont be at all disappointed as the "bug" (map overlay) becomes obsolete.