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Salt Lake City NBC Affiliate

post #1 of 16
11/22/06 at 8:51am
Thread Starter 
I have a question for the experts here. I live in the Salt Lake City market and have recently been forced to start watching the local channels. (thanks to the dish network issue). I have noticed that the local NBC affiliate (KSL) does not show Saturday Night Live. How is this allowed by NBC?

I stopped watching the local channels a couple of years back when the local NBC channel decided to not show the Tonight Show one night because they didn't like the guest that was going to be on. This is blatant censorship by the local channel. Again, how is this allowed by NBC?

The biggest issue is that the local NBC is owned by the Mormon Church. (Wikipedia Entry on KSL)
They seem to own much of Utah. This means that whenever the LDS Church doesn't agree with a NBC show, they don't show it.

I guess this is mainly just a rant. But I am curious as to why NBC allows it's affiliates to pick and choose what is shown. I would have thought that they locals would be contractually obligated to show the networks programs.
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post #2 of 16
11/22/06 at 9:08am

Re: Salt Lake City NBC Affiliate

Hmm.. looks like SNL is shown on the local CW affiliate in SLC: KUCW - 30?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KUCW

http://www.cw30.com/saturday.aspx
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post #3 of 16
11/22/06 at 9:13am

Re: Salt Lake City NBC Affiliate

I'm not an expert, and my non-expert guess is that affiliates only have to fill a quota to be deemed an affiliate, so maybe KSL just has to air 50% or more of NBC content to be deemed an affiliate. Are you aware that the local CW station does air Saturday Night Live and other programs KSL deems offensive?

EDIT: Greg beat me to it.
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post #4 of 16
11/22/06 at 9:14am
Thread Starter 

Re: Salt Lake City NBC Affiliate

The problem is that channel is one of the independents that has a bad picture quality and now I have to see 2 logos on the screen. I get the NBC logo on the left and a HUGE (I MEAN HUGE) CW logo on the right.

I now have to watch a crappy image on a crappy network. I don't get to watch it in HD and I have to worry that when there is a controversial episode of any NBC show, I wont get to see it because of censorship by the LDS church.

I just didn't think that the FCC allowed a special interest group to own a TV station.

Greg, thanks for the links. This is a very interesting quote:
Quote:
In addition to The CW programming schedule, KUCW broadcasts NBC programming that the network’s affiliate, KSL-TV channel 5, declines to air. The owner of KSL-TV, Bonneville International is part of the media division of the The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church). A socially conservative religious organization, the LDS Church declines to air some of NBC's more risque programming, such as Saturday Night Live, and the short-lived series Coupling.

So what happenes when a risque NBC show is scheduled to air at the same time a CW show is normally on? I bet the CW show is aired.
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post #5 of 16
11/22/06 at 9:23am

Re: Salt Lake City NBC Affiliate

Quote:
Originally Posted by Scott-S
So what happenes when a risque NBC show is scheduled to air at the same time a CW show is normally on? I bet the CW show is aired.
They may air it later in the night.
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post #6 of 16
11/22/06 at 9:25am

Re: Salt Lake City NBC Affiliate

If I owned an NBC affiliate I'd pre-empt ALL the programming til the damn turkey is taken off the screen for good. (See they've moved it to the left now, is it gonna stay there for 10 years??)
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post #7 of 16
11/22/06 at 9:30am

Re: Salt Lake City NBC Affiliate

Affiliation agreements aren't contracts stating that a station must show all the network's programs; they're just an agreement to deliver programming. Indeed, depending on the station and the age of the agreement, the money could be changing hands in either direction - the station could be paying the network, or the network could be paying the station.

As to "why would NBC allow it", they're probably not happy, but they may not have a lot of leverage. If the station is paying them, then they're basically not getting as much value for their money. And even if NBC is paying the station, and decides that the pre-emptions are a breach of contract, what are they going to do - yank their programming? Then it becomes somewhat less valuable to advertisers because it's not reaching the Salt Lake City market, and any unaffiliated stations in the area are probably low-power UHF stations.

So, NBC grits its teeth, allows other stations to pick up unused programming, and probably puts in a call to the other VHF stations in the area to see if they might be interested in changing their affiliation. That does happen occasionally - here in Boston, the NBC and CBS stations switched a few years ago when CBS's parent company bought the group that owned the NBC affiliate; my brother works for a station in Maine that switched from Fox to WB because WB paid them to carry their programming while Fox charged a fee. But if a station is willing to absorb the drop in ratings that broadcasting local/syndicated shows rather than network programing will cause (or if the community is such that those will do better than what's pre-empted), then they've got a lot more leverage.
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post #8 of 16
11/22/06 at 9:41am
Thread Starter 

Re: Salt Lake City NBC Affiliate

I still can't figure out how a channel I am watching on satellite TV can have ghosts and be blurry, just like the days of using the loop antenna???

The CW is a low power UHF channel and luckily it is available on Dish network, but the picture looks like I am using rabbit ears.

I think the signal is captured over the air, then sent up to the satellite by a third part. How is that for modern technology in the land of Zion?

Actually all the Salt Lake City locals that I am now forced to watch have pretty bad picture quality. I miss the New York / LA feeds.

Thank You Florida Judge!!!!!!
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post #9 of 16
11/22/06 at 11:18am

Re: Salt Lake City NBC Affiliate

Quote:
Originally Posted by Scott-S
I still can't figure out how a channel I am watching on satellite TV can have ghosts and be blurry, just like the days of using the loop antenna???

The CW is a low power UHF channel and luckily it is available on Dish network, but the picture looks like I am using rabbit ears.

I think the signal is captured over the air, then sent up to the satellite by a third part. How is that for modern technology in the land of Zion?

Actually all the Salt Lake City locals that I am now forced to watch have pretty bad picture quality. I miss the New York / LA feeds.

Thank You Florida Judge!!!!!!
Interesting. KUCW broadcasts in digital so you shouldn't be seeing what seems to be an analog broadcast, but I guess Dish doesn't want to spend any more money on supporting the local channels.
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post #10 of 16
11/22/06 at 1:38pm

Re: Salt Lake City NBC Affiliate

I am pretty sure there are other affiliates that are not carrying SNL. Our local affiliate tried to stop showing the program about 25 years ago, but there was such a protest, that they started showing it again. Our ABC affiliate here is own by Sinclair and they postpone Nightline by a half an hour and Jimmy Kimmel, follows that.
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post #11 of 16
11/22/06 at 10:30pm

Re: Salt Lake City NBC Affiliate

> This is blatant censorship by the local channel.

No, it isn't. Why do you live there if you hate the community so much? It seems a bit like moving to Alaska and being upset about cold weather.
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post #12 of 16
11/23/06 at 8:30am
Thread Starter 

Re: Salt Lake City NBC Affiliate

Quote:
Why do you live there if you hate the community so much?

I love the community, I just hate censorship. I live here because this is where my family is. I am sorry if I don't want to move away from my family so I can watch uncensored TV.

My beef is that someone or some group is deciding what I can or can't watch. That sounds like censorship to me.

Since they claim that anything that KSL doesn't want to show is shown on another channel at some time, it might be ok for me since I have access to other channel on satellite TV. But what about those who don't? The low powered UHF channel that they claim will show them is not viewable by everyone who can get KSL. Therefore there are some that are being denied the ability to watch SNL.

Back to the main reason of the thread.......

Doesn't the FCC have rules about who/what groups can own a TV or Radio station?
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post #13 of 16
11/23/06 at 9:42am

Re: Salt Lake City NBC Affiliate

It's Utah..what did you expect? This is the kind of stuff that prevents NBA free agents from wanting to sign in Utah.
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post #14 of 16
11/26/06 at 5:49pm

Re: Salt Lake City NBC Affiliate

SNL is risque programming?
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post #15 of 16
11/27/06 at 3:04pm

Re: Salt Lake City NBC Affiliate

Quote:
Doesn't the FCC have rules about who/what groups can own a TV or Radio station?

It's been awhile since I was a broadcasting major in college (16 years)... so some of my knowledge may be dated.

There were regulations on ownership of multiple media outlets in the same market by the same entity. Those regs have been relaxed. There is no restriction that I know of on what type of organization may have a VHF/UHF license.

A regulation that is still in place is that the outlet must serve the public interest, since, technically, it is the public who owns the spectrum that they use. If the owner of a VHF license does not serve the public interest, it is up to the public to review that outlet's file (anyone can go down to their local TV station and have a look at their license and public service files). If enough people believe that a station is not serving that particular community's interests, the FCC may award that spectrum space to another petitioner at the end of the 7 year license.

Others have mentioned that the relationship between network and affiliate is not always clear. Every market negotiates their own contracts. In many markets which are served by few terrestrial broadcasters, a single broadcaster may be affiliated with two or three networks - picking and choosing the programming they wish to air.

-Scott
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post #16 of 16
11/28/06 at 12:29pm

Re: Salt Lake City NBC Affiliate

Back in the day before channel 30, they would not show the NBC NFL games when the LDS conference was on. Let me tell you, that pissed me off. They haven't been showing SNL for years now.
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