expense of paying increasing copyright fees to transmit programs now readily available elsewhere. (Through this conversion, WGN America began phasing out all local news and sports programming simulcast with the Chicago signal, concluding with the removal of its morning and midday newscasts from WGN America's lineup on December 15, 2014.) WGN's superstation status ended (in the United States) on December 16, 2014, when all remaining simulcasts of the Chicago station's local news, public affairs and sports programming were removed from its schedule and the first carriage agreements that shifted WGN America from limited to expanded basic tiers (involving Comcast Xfinity systems in Chicago and four other major markets) went into effect. WGN-TV would eventually be made available throughout the United States once again in the spring of 2015, when antenna manufacturer Channel Master included the Chicago-area feed among the initial offerings on its short-lived over-the-top streaming service LinearTV. The five remaining "true" superstations—WPIX, KTLA, KWGN-TV, WWOR-TV and WSBK-TV—are carried on some rural cable providers and via satellite through Dish Network and C-Band systems. Since the 1988 syndication exclusivity rules were implemented, WKAQ-TV (channel 2) in San Juan and WAPA-TV (channel 4) in Guaynabo, Puerto Rico have been the only American television stations to achieve superstation status, although neither fits the legal criteria of a superstation as defined by the FCC. WKAQ's signal became available in the mainland United States in 2001, when Telemundo Group converted its Telemundo Internacional cable channel—which began as a cable news channel under the name Telenoticias in 1994—into a national feed of the station, branded as Telemundo Puerto Rico; the feed is available in the contiguous United States through select cable providers and via satellite on Dish Network and DirecTV. LIN Television Corp. began distributing a direct-to-satellite national feed of WAPA-TV, WAPA America, on September 1, 2004, through DirecTV's Para Todos Spanish-language tier; WAPA America is also available through select cable providers and on Dish Network. (Unlike the five superstations licensed within the U.S. mainland, WAPA's programming is generally "SyndEx-proof" as its schedule consists of domestically produced programs and acquired programming not widely available on broadcasters elsewhere within the Continental United States.) Since its inception in 1994, Dish Network has offered an a la carte tier of all five aforementioned mainland superstations to subscribers outside of the stations' respective home markets. The tier continued to be sold for many years following the 1999 passage of the