Interesting article on DirecTV and locals

[Guesst925XTU]

http://www.epcommunitynews.com/archives/2003/ep100303.htm

[Link]

http://www.epcommunitynews.com/archives/2003/ep100303.htm

That article sounds similar to a situation in Evansville, Indiana. Viewers in Knox County have watched Evansville stations on cable and over the air for years, but Vincennes and the rest of the county is in Terre Haute's DMA not Evansville, so they cannot receive Evansville's local package from Dish Network. Evansville provides an ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox, PBS, and WB station while Terre Haute only offers 3 stations NBC, CBS, and Fox. Knox County viewers would much rather have Evansville. Terre Haute is 60 miles from Vincennes and Evansville is 50 miles away so it doesn't any sense at all!

[JohnGfun]

That article sounds similar to a situation in Evansville, Indiana. Viewers in Knox County have watched Evansville stations on cable and over the air for years, but Vincennes and the rest of the county is in Terre Haute's DMA not Evansville, so they cannot receive Evansville's local package from Dish Network. Evansville provides an ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox, PBS, and WB station while Terre Haute only offers 3 stations NBC, CBS, and Fox. Knox County viewers would much rather have Evansville. Terre Haute is 60 miles from Vincennes and Evansville is 50 miles away so it doesn't any sense at all!

It is so Stupid! We have had both Evansville and Terre Haute Locals throught Charter!

[Chris Freeland]

I was working as a field tech for the GA primary in Summersville Ga this past Monday and Tuesday and stayed in a Motel on Monday night their. Summersville is about half way between Chattanooga TN and Atlanta GA and if I am not mistaken are in the Chattanooga DMA, however on the cable in my motel room they had all of the Chattanooga locals plus the local NBC, CBS, ABC and UPN from Atlanta too, I do not know who owns their cable system their, but I too think that this type of thing is where the law needs to be changed so that D* and E* can do the same thing on satellite.

[JohnGfun]

I was working as a field tech for the GA primary in Summersville Ga this past Monday and Tuesday and stayed in a Motel on Monday night their. Summersville is about half way between Chattanooga TN and Atlanta GA and if I am not mistaken are in the Chattanooga DMA, however on the cable in my motel room they had all of the Chattanooga locals plus the local NBC, CBS, ABC and UPN from Atlanta too, I do not know who owns their cable system their, but I too think that this type of thing is where the law needs to be changed so that D* and E* can do the same thing on satellite.

A agree!

[BobJ2004]

Change the LAW TO:

DBS can carry any and ALL Locals that Cable can.

Also if there is NO HDTV OTA that can be received, then DBS and Cable is free to offer any national feed or the next closest city in HD.

Make it fair for all.


Who Do I need to write to get this law changed?

[Mark Holtz]

Your representatives in congress and refer to bill S.2013-"Satellite Home Viewer Extension Act of 2004". If you don't know who your representatives are, go to Project Vote Smart (www.vote-smart.org) .

[JohnGfun]

Your representatives in congress and refer to bill S.2013-"Satellite Home Viewer Extension Act of 2004". If you don't know who your representatives are, go to Project Vote Smart (www.vote-smart.org) .
Who am I suppost to look for? State Rep? My zip is 62439-9767

[Mark Holtz]

US Senators and House of Representatives because this is a federal piece of legislation.

[sunking]

Does anyone know where I can get a list of the channels that are located in a specific DMA.

The reason I ask is this, I live in Springfield MA DMA and up until recently the only CBS was located in the neighboring Hartford CT DMA. A few months ago, said Hartford CBS channel opened a small relay CBS channel in the Springfield DMA. The problem is this new station is really only for the cable systems, they transmit at something crazy like 2kw of power so is impossible to get.

The Hartford (WFSB) station is only broadcasting at minimal digital also, (like 20kW and they are 30+ miles away). So, my question is about the CBS waiver. From what I hear, the hartford channel is very strict on giving out waivers. It seems a no brainer that because the Springfield channel doesn't even transmit in HD I should be able to get a waiver, but being owned by the Hartford channel (who used to be in my DMA until the new station opened) they still may not.

I guess my real question is, just because a closer station opens, does it make it in my DMA and remove the other. Is there a way to find out?

Thanks, and sorry about this confusing mess of a post.

[HappyGoLucky]

This happens where my parents live, too. They are in south-central Virginia, in the Blue Ridge Mountains. That's where I grew up. I call it the "hour zone" because it is an hour drive from Roanoke, VA, Danville, VA, Winston Salem, NC, Greensboro, NC, High Point, NC. They receive exceptionally clear OTA signals (probably due to their elevation) from the television stations in Roanoke, Lynchburg, Greensboro, Winston Salem, High Point, Raleigh, Durham, Charlotte. They typically receive two of every one of the major networks, a Virginia one and a North Carolina one. The cable tv systems in that area usually carry all of them, which I'm sure is a big burden, but if they were to try dropping the VA or the NC stations, they would lose a lot of customers. Dish and DirecTV carry the Greensboro DMA, and Dish also has the Roanoke DMA, but they won't allow you to have both, which means most people, like my parents, simply forego getting their locals via the dish and instead still use their antennas or cable systems.

[uncdanwrong]

It might be heresy posting it here, but a list of full power analog stations for over half the DMA's is in the Echostar Knowledge Base. Click on Links on the DBSTalk homepage to find it.