Another local rant

[Tomsoundman]

E* now has 61 (or real close to that number) local cities on the satellites according to their website today. On the Nielsen Media Research website (link on home page of dbstalk.com) my city is number 61 (Huntington/Charleston, WV).

Why are there 7 cities lower than us on the DMA ranking that do have locals on Dishnetwork while my city does not?

Hopefully we are close but how do I find out? Seems like they don't want to give any info before it is finalized which I can understand.

Sorry to rant.

Is it because we are rural rednecks that are stu- stu- stupid?:D

If you ever have had the joy of being here, there are A LOT of dishes (both D & E) because cable doesn't make it up every "holler" where people live. Heck there are even still some BUDs around.

Is there a way to campaign for my locals?:shrug:

[James_F]

Its not that simple as I understand it. It has to do with capacity on the spots in addition to what your DMA is. From what I've read unless there is a new sat, you'll not get your locals.

[Kagato]

It's a business. There are a lot of factors. It's not just how big the market is, but how likely they are to penitrate the market in question. How many channels they'd have to put online because of must carry rules, how compeditive the local cable company is, how many existing customers they have in the area that would automatically pay up. How much of a pain in the ass the local channels are. For all we know Dish could already be talking to the local channels, but can't get a reasonable agreement out of one of more of them.

[cnsf]

Does D* already serve that market instead? Is there a big satellite subscriber base? Just a couple of factors to consider.....

[Tomsoundman]

No, D* does not cover my area according to their website. I tried to mention in orig. post about the number of Dishes I see. That is not a real scientific study obviously.

Thanks for responding to my pity party!

[DarrellP]

FWIW, I received an email from Dish Tech support when I was bitching about the PQ on the Northwest spotbeams and he said they are considering putting Yakima on our beams and they are market #142 or so. The reason is that they have a small number of stations but a big potential for subs since cable service really stinks.

[gcutler]

I bet most of it has to do with the Locals in your makret. If the local ABC/CBS/NBC/FOX/WB/UPN/PBS stations said we'll charge you the "going rate" for this size population the deal would probably go thru quickly. But if you are dealing with the conglomerates who want package deals or some additional incentive for them to sign then it seems to me that Charlie just moves on to the next market. There must be studies that determine potential profitability to each market (based on likely subcriber signup, etc) and that also must work into it.

If the Local Atlanta CBS (just as an example) is a pain in the a*s, Charlie may have to deal with it because of the market being # 10 or so. But if the CBS in Market #107 is a pain, it may be less burdensome to move on to Market #108 and not look back. Maybe next time the CBS local may in market #107 may come back with a better deal and then charlie is happier because it cost less money in the long run to walk away the first time.

[Mike123abc]

Another factor is where the spot beam capacity is located. Dish is pretty full in NE, MW, mid Atlantic. Florida, TX, and West Coast is where they have the most capacity. That is why they are adding smaller DMAs in TX, FL & CA.