Looks very nice but is anyone actually watching NBC Boston? Last I read, many couldn’t receive it and it’s ratings were dreadful.
The ratings improved but they’re still in a very competitive market which already had five English languages broadcast (four are Boston based and one in Manchester, NH) stations and NBC’s NECN cable channel. Although the product is solid I don’t think the newscasts is getting any decent ratings (last I heard they were either in fourth or flash place) but viewers are apparently tuning in for the NBC shows but they aren’t retaining the viewership.
Signal wise it’s now got full market coverage via two full power sticks. The first one is WBTS-CD - which previously used the call signs WYCN-LD. Prior to the NBC purchase WYCN sold its spectrum in the incentive auction and had to find a new broadcaster. In this case they entered into an agreement with a full power station WGBX. Then WYCN-CD was sold to NBC and channel sharing agreement took effect on January 18, 2018. So NBC at the time was on WBTS-CD which was still on a low power signal until last year in addition to being on WYCN-LD which despite being labeled as a low power station for all intents and purposes is a full power station*. Then on August 8, 2019 they swapped call signs so WYCN-LD became WBTS-CD and vice versa versa (confused yet?). Here’s some technical info from
RabbitEars.info about the channel sharing with WBTS-LD/WGBX and see that in addition to NBC Boston they carry six other SD subchannels (one of which is NBC Boston’s sub-channel Cozi.
Then NBC Boston has a simulcast on the full power Telemundo affiliate WNEU, which is licensed to Merrimack, NH. This station and its spectrum NBC owns, carries
Telemundo Nuevo Inglaterra and NBC Boston in full HD along with NBC O&O SD sub channels Telexitos, Cozi and LX. Originally WNEU had their transmitter based near Manchester New Hampshire and did not have good city coverage in Boston. Therefore there was a need at launch for a station to cover Boston so at the time and before the ultimate purchase and call sign swap with WYCN-CD, they bought the low power WBTS-LD. At the time WBTS-LD’s NBC and Cozi signals were also transmitted on WNEU for fuller market coverage and Telemundo and Telexitos were carried on WBTS-LD for city coverage. If I remember correctly WBTS-LD barely covered the city proper. Originally WNEU’s transmitter was based near Manchester, NH but they’ve moved it to the CBS Tower in Boston which is also home to WGBX (heres the current
service contours. Before the move the two stations signal covered a large part of the market (eastern Massachusetts and the entire state of New Hampshire) as most of the Boston based stations barely reached Manchester but now that they’re both based at the CBS Tower they cover roughly the same area. To maintain consistency in NBC Boston is on virtual channels 15.1 (WBTS-CD/WGBX spectrum) and on 15.3 (WNEU’s spectrum) likewise Cozi TV is on 15.2 and 15.4.
As I mentioned before WYCN-LD now serves as a Telemundo Nueva Inglaterra repeater for the
Providence, RI market and also carries all the aforementioned SD subchannels. Before WYCN the station was bought buy NBCUni the station already entered into a channel sharing agreement with WGBX. WYCN signed off the air at the end of that August and resigned on to the air with a new transmitter based in Norton, MA along with its city of license to a Providence, RI (thus changing its DMA).
Hopefully I got this right and it made sense, the whole situation is confusing from the get-go and I bet employees there weren’t fully sure whats what. Originally it was on virtual channels 8.1 (WBTS-CD’s old virtual channel and now WYCN-LD’s) and 60.4 (WNEU’s virtual and physical channel). However now it’s on virtual channel 15.x. They brand it as NBC 10 Boston due to it being on channel 10 on cable and satellite.
*Several low power stations entered into channel sharing agreements with full power stations and I wonder if the FCC will ever decide to reclassify these stations as full power to collect more money.