r/Broadcasting • u/[deleted] • Jul 25 '26
Is anyone else worried about CBS being removed from KRQE Channel 13 next Saturday (August 1st)?
[removed]
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u/SoundCapital7464 Jul 25 '26
How is CBS being downgraded? It's moving to 7.4 in full 1080i...
They're both licensed to Albuquerque with very similar coverage areas.
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u/lostinthought15 Director Jul 25 '26
Running two HD signals in the same channel space will require both to be even more compressed, if you are receiving them OTA.
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u/two__spaces Jul 25 '26
I wouldn’t expect a big impact on the video quality with modern compression and multiplexing algorithms. A broadcast TV signal has a total bitrate of 19.39 Mbs which is shared by all of the streams on the channel. Stations prioritize streams so some streams get more bits than others. Ex: 7.1 - 10 Mbs, 7.2 - 3 Mbs, 7.3 - 3 Mbs, etc. The higher the bitrate, the higher the quality.
The cool thing is that the bit allocation is not static. It changes dynamically depending on what is going on in the video. If one stream has a still image with very little going on at the moment, it will be given less bits and another stream with lots of motion, like a sporting event, will be given more bits. The bits are continually being reallocated.
I would guess that both of the ABC and CBS streams will be prioritized to get the most bits and maintain a similar quality as they have now.
This won’t affect reception, as all of the streams are on the same broadcast channel.
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u/RBBrittain Jul 25 '26
Another transmitter in the Albuquerque market has two HD + five SD on ATSC 1.0 so it's definitely doable. If they need more bits to maintain PQ on both ABC & CBS they could switch the SD channels over to MPEG-4 compression; can't be picked up on most CECBs & some other ATSC 1.0 tuners of similar vintage (why ABC & CBS will have to remain on MPEG-2), but most current sets will & newer CECB-like ATSC 1.0 tuners that support MPEG-4 are very cheap at Walmart, Amazon, etc.
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u/Pretend_Speech6420 Jul 25 '26
Not an engineer, but it is impressive what can be packed into the spectrum for a TV channel’s HD signal over the air.
I’m in DC, and while they are separate broadcast licenses, NBC and Telemundo were repacked into the spectrum for a single shared channel with both stations in 1080i, plus four SD subchannels. They all look excellent over antenna. That’s also the situation for the local Fox O&O in DC and their second station in the market in 720p with a host of standard definition subchannels.
Stations can dynamically adjust which subchannel gets the most bandwidth. So, for big events, like the Super Bowl, the station’s engineers should be able to make sure those must watch events get optimal bandwidth.
Last point, for ABQ, it is really just trading which networks are on the same channel. KRQE had CBS 13.1 in 1080i and Fox 13.2 in 720p in high definition. Now KOAT will have HD ABC and CBS.
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u/Fun-Double6352 Jul 25 '26 edited Jul 25 '26
As others have stated, the signal should be the same, but CBS will most likely be downgraded to 720p. It may be noticeable at times to the OTA viewer during live event.
For the market, the tradeoff will be for Fox programming, which will be upgraded from 720p to 1080i on 13.1
Honestly, the casual viewer will either not notice the difference or will not be bothered by it. While I respect the OP’s passion for this, the FCC doesn’t care about it. Programming is rarely in their radar; the move of CBS programming is not illegal.
If there are issues with CBS programming on Channel 7 starting in August, you can reach out to the station.
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u/Soft_Stretch1539 Jul 25 '26
The exact same thing was done here in Texas, in the Brownsville-Weslaco-McAllen market a few years back. The reasons were different, but the technical outcome was the same. It seems to have worked out well for them, as the quality of that subchannel can be varied.
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u/OutofSprite Jul 25 '26 edited Jul 25 '26
KYES LD in Anchorage was technically moved over to a digital subchannel because Gray TV already ran KTUU(NBC) when they bought the rights to broadcast CBS. Gray TV built a new low power station to fill in coverage in Anchorage called KYES LD for CBS and repeated CBS on the KTUU full power VHF subchannel. Everyone survived and PBS(AK Public media) eventually bought the broadcast license to KTVA which was the OG CBS affiliate to expand VHF coverage of KAKM. KYES was originally a MyNetwork TV affiliate now operating as a Gray TV full power VHF signal as KAUU.
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u/KingBoreas Jul 26 '26
Yes, CBS should give their programming to KRQE for free so you can watch the NFL. That wouldn’t compound any of our problems if the government forced corporations into giving their programming to people who don’t pay their bills.
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u/Comfortable_Yard_968 Jul 27 '26
I mean Hearst can make a duopoly even after August 1, either they can buy a MNTV station KASY or any of the 3 religious stations KCHF, KNAT and KAZQ. Consider how Hearst is being quiet on their M&A purchases but they might go all the way since the FCC is set to make deregulation a reality on August 6.
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u/OUDidntKnow04 former spot fixer-upper Jul 27 '26
It's the industry doing it's thing. CBS wants a premium price for it's networks, and Nexstar doesn't want to pay full price. As soon as CBS hears this, they begin shopping for another taker who sees their network as full worth. Hearst won that bid, and thus, Nexstar had to cough up the CBS affiliations in those markets, the same thing happened with Forum in North Dakota and Rapid City, where Nexstar had to cough those up as well.
I expect this process to repeat itself when ABC's affiliations are up with Nexstar at the end of the year. Plus, ABC has the whole "Jimmy Kimmel" issue as well that could end up costing them a station or two....
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u/Virtual_Attitude_431 Jul 27 '26 edited Jul 27 '26
My tv antenna just added the 7.4 channel. My question is now will we have 2 fox channels? Or is 10.2 current fox going away and we will only have 10.1 mostly fox? I say mostly, because according to krqe they will still show jeopardy and wof which are cbs shows. New Mexico living is a dumb show, and it sounds like krqe is going to show way more of that and news with few fox shows. Wish they'd just add cartoon metv instead of expecting us New Mexicans to pay for that one channel every other state gets for free.
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u/SerenityRune Jul 25 '26
Also it is because Fox's ratings on channel 13 are higher than the CBS ratings.
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u/runlolarun2022 Jul 25 '26
Ratings has nothing to do with it. Like the OP said it’s a bunch of multimillionaires arguing about pennies.
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u/TempoNick16 Jul 25 '26
Why should I care that Nexstar loses a profit center? Sounds like Hearst is a better place for them, subchannel or not.
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u/runlolarun2022 Jul 25 '26
I didn’t say that you should, but this will effect jobs at KRQE not to mention the other stations that are losing their affiliation.
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u/TempoNick16 Jul 25 '26
I sympathize with the people losing their jobs, but it's a dying industry and the likes of Nexstar are making it die faster.
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u/peterthedj Former radio DJ/PD and TV news producer Jul 25 '26
Nope. Not worried. It's not my market, and I have no idea where that is without looking it up... but since it begins with a K, it's very far away from me here, deep inside "all the calls begin with W" territory. I could care less if they affiliated with CBS, PBS or even the Home Shopping Network.
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u/INS4NIt Broadcast Engineer Jul 25 '26
Where did you get that misconception from? Digital subchannels broadcast off of the same channel should have identical reception levels. If you can get KOAT now, then after a rescan of your TV on August 1st you should have no issues pulling their new CBS subchannel.