WWE Announces New Network For WWE SmackDown

[Black Widow]

WWE issued the following press release this morning announcing the new home for Smackdown on TV:

MyNetworkTV CROWNS WWE ITS NEW PROGRAMMING CHAMP

Network Is the Exclusive Prime-Time Broadcast Home of “WWE® SmackDown®” Beginning Fall 2008

NEW YORK – MyNetworkTV and World Wrestling Entertainment® (WWE) have announced a new broadcast television home for “WWE SmackDown,” scheduled to debut in Fall 2008. The announcement was jointly made by MyNetworkTV President, Greg Meidel and WWE Chairman of the Board Vincent K. McMahon.

In making the announcement, Meidel stated, “The momentum at MyNetworkTV continues with this major acquisition. We have demonstrated tremendous growth and this partnership with WWE, the premier sports entertainment franchise in the world is a perfect fit for our viewers, advertisers and affiliates.”

The two-hour television program will be presented weekly on MyNetworkTV. “WWE SmackDown” will feature a star-studded cast of WWE Superstars, including Edge®, Rey Mysterio®, Batista®, MVP™, Kane® and Undertaker®, as well as present all the action, excitement, drama and great athleticism that have made it for nine years one of the most popular programs among males on broadcast television, and one of the top ten English language prime time programs among Hispanic households.

WWE Chairman Vince McMahon added, “We are excited to add MyNetworkTV and its television affiliates to our family of global network partners. We have an unmatched record of delivering ratings success to each and every network partner we’ve worked with in our long and storied history. We fully intend to bring that same level of success to MyNetworkTV.”

[JohnCenaFan28]

:tantrum: NO! I don't get that channel! I hope Edge and everyone I like get traded before Fall...

[Flair Country]

This is horrible news for WWE for two main reasons.

1) MyNetworkTV is not in High Definition, so after WWE spent all of that money re-designing their set, it wont be shown off properly in the 4:3 format.

2) There a lot of markets that don't even get that channel, including my own. So not that I watched too much Smackdown as it was but now I can't even watch it if I wanted to.

[JohnCenaFan28]

I hope they change the channel because I can't survive with no Edge:sad2: and SD! is also some ECW stuff too:(

[Ill Will]

Well, this sucks for the IFL. They're going to go from the most important show on the channel (which gives them a lot of leverage) to just another show that will most likely be ran out by WWE.


This is horrible news for WWE for two main reasons.

1) MyNetworkTV is not in High Definition, so after WWE spent all of that money re-designing their set, it wont be shown off properly in the 4:3 format.
??? Yes, MyNetworkTV is in High Definition. As a matter of fact, except for the IFL, every show they produce is done in High Def (which, up until a few months ago, is something USA Network was saying about WWE RAW).


2) There a lot of markets that don't even get that channelAccording to the network's site, it reaches 96 percent of the U.S., and is also in Canada and Mexico (and that actually won't make a difference seeing as how Smackdown is only on The CW in the U.S. right now, and on networks unrelated to The CW or MyNetworkTV in Canada and Mexico). So according to the numbers, only a few people don't have access to this channel in the U.S.


including my own. So not that I watched too much Smackdown as it was but now I can't even watch it if I wanted to.Richmond, VA? Do you not get this channel:

http://www.mytvrichmond.com/

You do need cable or a digital TV to get it, but it is very much in your market.

[aoessand]

so its going back to where it started heh

[Flair Country]

Well, this sucks for the IFL. They're going to go from the most important show on the channel (which gives them a lot of leverage) to just another show that will most likely be ran out by WWE.


??? Yes, MyNetworkTV is in High Definition. As a matter of fact, except for the IFL, every show they produce is done in High Def (which, up until a few months ago, is something USA Network was saying about WWE RAW).

According to the network's site, it reaches 96 percent of the U.S., and is also in Canada and Mexico (and that actually won't make a difference seeing as how Smackdown is only on The CW in the U.S. right now, and on networks unrelated to The CW or MyNetworkTV in Canada and Mexico). So according to the numbers, only a few people don't have access to this channel in the U.S.

Richmond, VA? Do you not get this channel:

http://www.mytvrichmond.com/

You do need cable or a digital TV to get it, but it is very much in your market.


Ahh yes, my good buddy Ill Will here to punch me in the balls yet again. :)

I appreciate all of your research leading up to this post, but in the end I believe you are a little misinformed my friend. As far as MyNetworkTV reaching 96% of the US(according to THEIR site), I will not argue because frankly I'm just being selfish and I want to focus on me.

So with that let me pick apart your post for a bit...


??? Yes, MyNetworkTV is in High Definition. As a matter of fact, except for the IFL, every show they produce is done in High Def (which, up until a few months ago, is something USA Network was saying about WWE RAW).

While this might be true in other markets, it is not true for the Richmond, VA market. As a matter of fact here is a listing from Comcast with all of the HD programming that they currently offer, http://tvplanner.comcast.net/?zipcode=23060#initView=grid,subPage=main,target=, b3target=,b3selPath=,gridStart=1204246800000,gridF ilter=all,searchTerm=,microCat=null,microSubcat=nu ll,browseAlpha=null,browseListing=null,12042113605 69. Now if you do a little perusing of this search you will notice that MyNetworkTV is not listed on there.

Now specifically to your
except for the IFL, every show they produce is done in High Def statement. While that comment might be true and sounds pretty strong what you do not mention is that it is only 5% of what the network actually broadcasts. 95% of the shows on MyNetworkTV are reruns of old sitcoms like "Mad About You" and "The Nanny" or classics like "The Maury Povich Show" and "America's Funniest Videos".



Richmond, VA? Do you not get this channel:

http://www.mytvrichmond.com/

You do need cable or a digital TV to get it, but it is very much in your market.

No as a matter of fact I do not get that channel and I do have cable and a digital TV. The one thing that you're missing is that MyNetworkTV is only shown on Digital Cable. It is shown on channel 209 here in Richmond which is not available with basic cable, you have to pay premium to watch it. There is absolutely no way I can justify paying an extra $20 a month to watch reruns of "Good Times" and "Sandford and Son".

Oh and just as a side note, if you were going with the "Hey if you got DirecTV approach...", here is the listing for their broadcast of local channels, http://www.directv.com/DTVAPP/packProg/localChannels.jsp?_requestid=191019, which of course doesn't include MyNetworkTV either.

[Ill Will]

While this might be true in other markets, it is not true for the Richmond, VA market. As a matter of fact here is a listing from Comcast with all of the HD programming that they currently offer, http://tvplanner.comcast.net/?zipcode=23060#initView=grid,subPage=main,target=, b3target=,b3selPath=,gridStart=1204246800000,gridF ilter=all,searchTerm=,microCat=null,microSubcat=nu ll,browseAlpha=null,browseListing=null,12042113605 69. Now if you do a little perusing of this search you will notice that MyNetworkTV is not listed on there.Do you not realize that you just supported my statement? I pointed out that the shows were produced in Hi Def. It's simply unfortunate that your local Comcast affiliate doesn't offer that channel in HD, but that doesn't change the fact that HD technology is used in the production of the shows in question.

Ok, so in your market, you can't get MyNetworkTV in HD, but your statement (the one I was refuting) that WWE wasted all this money upgrading to HD when "MyNetworkTV is not in High Definition" is still a little absurd. Yes, Richmond won't be able to get Smackdown in HD. Plenty of other markets still will though, not to mention that the money spent upgrading to HD was allocated to both RAW and ECW as well, not just Smackdown.



Now specifically to your statement. While that comment might be true and sounds pretty strong what you do not mention is that it is only 5% of what the network actually broadcasts. 95% of the shows on MyNetworkTV are reruns of old sitcoms like "Mad About You" and "The Nanny" or classics like "The Maury Povich Show" and "America's Funniest Videos".I made that comment fully aware of what type of shows can be found on the network. It's not secret that it's just a shitty network, and much (not 95%) of their programming is just syndicated '90s sitcoms. Those shows aren't going to magically appear in crystal clear HD, no matter what network they are on. The technology simply didn't exist when Mad About You or AFV were in production. However, my statement specifically was about shows produced by MyNetworkTV.





No as a matter of fact I do not get that channel and I do have cable and a digital TV. The one thing that you're missing is that MyNetworkTV is only shown on Digital Cable.lol, apparently you don't know how to work your digital TV. It is not only shown on digital cable. If you truly do have a digital tuner, you should be able to turn to digital subchannel 35.2 and get MyNetworkTV (this is something clearly stated at the top of the page of the link I posted). It is a local station in Richmond, VA. You don't even need analog cable for it.


It is shown on channel 209 here in Richmond which is not available with basic cable, you have to pay premium to watch it. There is absolutely no way I can justify paying an extra $20 a month to watch reruns of "Good Times" and "Sandford and Son".In some markets, USA Network is a premium channel, which means people pay extra just to watch RAW. In most markets, Sci-Fi is only offered on digital cable, and people have to pay extra for it. I personally would not go out of my way and pay for any channel just to watch a wrestling show (I'd just wait a few minutes after the show ends and download it), and I agree that it's definitely not worth the $20 to be able to watch Smackdown, but even if you just personally don't feel like paying more to watch the channel, that is completely different than claiming that the channel is unavailable in your market. Albeit at an unreasonable expense if you don't have digital cable or a digital TV, MyNetworkTV is technically still very much available in Richmond Virginia.


Oh and just as a side note, if you were going with the "Hey if you got DirecTV approach...", here is the listing for their broadcast of local channels, http://www.directv.com/DTVAPP/packProg/localChannels.jsp?_requestid=191019, which of course doesn't include MyNetworkTV either.Nope, I never went that route or even thought about satellite. Like I said, all you really need is a digital TV (which you claim to have). You don't need basic cable, digital cable, or satellite.

[Flair Country]

Dude you are a trip and you made your post so long that there is no way I can break it down, well done sir. So I'll just throw out some bullet points:

- I do support your statement that it could possibly be filmed in HD, but as I said in my post above I don't really care about any of that if I can't watch it in HD.

- If you don't agree that 95% of their lineup is non-original, standard definition programming then I'm not sure how to convince you of that.

- I do indeed have a digital TV my friend. It's a Sony KD-34XBR960 and if you are a little unfamiliar with that model, you can check it out here http://www.amazon.com/SONY-Super-Pitch-Television-KD-34XBR960/dp/B0002NDFKM. It has an integrated ATSC tuner that can pick up unscrambled digital and even HD channels, but you can't just tune it to a station. It isn't quite as simple as using an external HD tuner. It does have a digital channel search feature(which is pretty nice I must say) but the numbers of the channels it finds do not equal the broadcast channel. For example, the local ABC HD channel is 8.1, however my TV's ATSC tuner picks up the station as 89.2. FOX HD is normally 35.1, on mine it's 104.5,etc. Just for shits and giggles I let my TV search for 30 minutes to see if I could pick up MyNetworkTV on one of the digital channels and no luck.

[Ill Will]

- I do support your statement that it could possibly be filmed in HD, but as I said in my post above I don't really care about any of that if I can't watch it in HD.This is a totally reasonable opinion to have, but it's still a complete detraction from your original statement that "MyNetworkTV is not in High Definition", or that WWE wasted money upgrading to HD.


- If you don't agree that 95% of their lineup is non-original, standard definition programming then I'm not sure how to convince you of that.I'd really rather not do the math and come up with an exact percentage. That's just too petty, even for me. A lot of the programming is syndicated, but 95% is an exaggeration. Considering that IFL doesn't return until April, all of the primetime programming on the network right now (except for the movie nights) is in HD. This is pretty much the norm in network television. If you look at Fox, ABC, CBS, etc, their HD programming is primarily in primetime (excluding soap operas that play in the middle of the day--which is something that MyNetworkTV had in HD too until they changed their target demographic to young males). You're acting as if NyNetworkTV is falling behind because they don't have HD 24/7.


- I do indeed have a digital TV my friend. It's a Sony KD-34XBR960 and if you are a little unfamiliar with that model, you can check it out here http://www.amazon.com/SONY-Super-Pitch-Television-KD-34XBR960/dp/B0002NDFKM. It has an integrated ATSC tuner that can pick up unscrambled digital and even HD channels, but you can't just tune it to a station. It isn't quite as simple as using an external HD tuner. It does have a digital channel search feature(which is pretty nice I must say) but the numbers of the channels it finds do not equal the broadcast channel. For example, the local ABC HD channel is 8.1, however my TV's ATSC tuner picks up the station as 89.2. FOX HD is normally 35.1, on mine it's 104.5,etc. Just for shits and giggles I let my TV search for 30 minutes to see if I could pick up MyNetworkTV on one of the digital channels and no luck.Did you ever stop to think that the source (a cable wire) might be the wrong one to pick up a local channel with? Of course the numbers aren't going equate to the broadcast channels (that should be expected with cable...right?), and chances are, if the Comcast in Richmond offers MyNetworkTV as a channel exclusively on digital cable, you shouldn't be expecting to also pick it up with their basic cable service.

Like I said before, it is a local channel. This may be a little inconvenient, but if you were to switch input sources from cable to just air antenna, using your digital tuner, you should be able to pick up the DT-2 signal of WRLH. Fox is channel 11 on cable, right? But it's also a local station, channel 35, without cable, right? That local station carries MyNetworkTV affiliation through a digital subchannel, channel 35.2. This channel can be picked up with a digital tuner without cable.

[Attila]

Doesn't bother em at all.

I get this channel and I get it in High Definition!