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How did this happen? Locals appear with out asking..

3K views 30 replies 14 participants last post by  crodrules 
#1 ·
Okay kids.. 14 years with Directv.. many highs and a couple of lows.. but today is the shocker.. My dvr in the kitchen stopped showing a picture.. it showed the channels and the banners at the top.. but no photo.. and last night in the middle of the night. I had a freeze up in an HBO movie.. ( never had that happen before) so I call. and later was just asking nicely if I could get Showtime for a couple of months.. The CSR that I spoke to.. immediately gave me a discount on HBO and Stars and then said her cpu was running slow.. Finally she says yes my supervisor gave you the showtime.. No biggie..
but whenever I call I always make sure that my Distants are still there. and they were.. but for WHAT EVER REASON IN THE WORLD.. I checked my locals.. WWWWHHHHAAAAAAATTT!!!! they were on.. didn't ask. didn't mention.. didn't imply, hint , discuss , or even ask about the weather in my local area.. Now what? after 14 years I should be Shreva Grandfathered.. but .. the picture quality was just what I expected.. NO LOCAL HD..( CBS LOCAL NO HD). no stereo.. I do not want to give up my distants.. No flippn' way.. I suppose the best thing to do is to sit and wait.. but right now I am shocked.. ( Claude Rains , Casablanca, 1942 102 min)
 
#2 ·
I'm pretty sure they're required to give you locals when they become available.

But you will lose the network's national feeds.
 
#4 ·
bjlc said:
Okay kids.. 14 years with Directv.. many highs and a couple of lows.. but today is the shocker.. My dvr in the kitchen stopped showing a picture.. it showed the channels and the banners at the top.. but no photo.. and last night in the middle of the night. I had a freeze up in an HBO movie.. ( never had that happen before) so I call. and later was just asking nicely if I could get Showtime for a couple of months.. The CSR that I spoke to.. immediately gave me a discount on HBO and Stars and then said her cpu was running slow.. Finally she says yes my supervisor gave you the showtime.. No biggie..
but whenever I call I always make sure that my Distants are still there. and they were.. but for WHAT EVER REASON IN THE WORLD.. I checked my locals.. WWWWHHHHAAAAAAATTT!!!! they were on.. didn't ask. didn't mention.. didn't imply, hint , discuss , or even ask about the weather in my local area.. Now what? after 14 years I should be Shreva Grandfathered.. but .. the picture quality was just what I expected.. NO LOCAL HD..( CBS LOCAL NO HD). no stereo.. I do not want to give up my distants.. No flippn' way.. I suppose the best thing to do is to sit and wait.. but right now I am shocked.. ( Claude Rains , Casablanca, 1942 102 min)
So did the distant networks disappear? I not positive but from memory remember reading if you get any network in HD they all have to be HD.
 
#6 ·
ragweed10 said:
What and Where can you get a Package with-OUT Locals ?
by living in the last few places (3?) that DIRECTV does not offer locals.....

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#8 ·
camo said:
I don't get locals either. But would like to know his/her location also. They will come on automatically when available I've been told. But like I said they shouldn't have CBS without HD if the others are in HD.
I think the law is carry one, carry all. DIRECTV des not have to carry any local in HD, but if the carry one then they have to offer to carry all (those that are available). At least this is how I understand it. Pretty sure corrections will follow.

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#9 ·
bjlc said:
Okay kids.. 14 years with Directv.. many highs and a couple of lows.. but today is the shocker.. My dvr in the kitchen stopped showing a picture.. it showed the channels and the banners at the top.. but no photo.. and last night in the middle of the night. I had a freeze up in an HBO movie.. ( never had that happen before) so I call. and later was just asking nicely if I could get Showtime for a couple of months.. The CSR that I spoke to.. immediately gave me a discount on HBO and Stars and then said her cpu was running slow.. Finally she says yes my supervisor gave you the showtime.. No biggie..
but whenever I call I always make sure that my Distants are still there. and they were.. but for WHAT EVER REASON IN THE WORLD.. I checked my locals.. WWWWHHHHAAAAAAATTT!!!! they were on.. didn't ask. didn't mention.. didn't imply, hint , discuss , or even ask about the weather in my local area.. Now what? after 14 years I should be Shreva Grandfathered.. but .. the picture quality was just what I expected.. NO LOCAL HD..( CBS LOCAL NO HD). no stereo.. I do not want to give up my distants.. No flippn' way.. I suppose the best thing to do is to sit and wait.. but right now I am shocked.. ( Claude Rains , Casablanca, 1942 102 min)
You can check to see what is available by going to this DirecTV site and putting in your zip code.
http://www.directv.com/DTVAPP/packProg/localChannels.jsp?assetId=cms_local_channels&_requestid=5562687
 
#10 ·
peds48 said:
I think the law is carry one, carry all. DIRECTV des not have to carry any local in HD, but if the carry one then they have to offer to carry all (those that are available). At least this is how I understand it. Pretty sure corrections will follow.

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Yes believe that's the way it is and he is saying CBS isn't HD. Somethings not right it may have been turned on by mistake.
 
#11 ·
peds48 said:
I think the law is carry one, carry all. DIRECTV des not have to carry any local in HD, but if the carry one then they have to offer to carry all (those that are available). At least this is how I understand it. Pretty sure corrections will follow.
We need to know the market. If the market's CBS affiliate is not broadcasting in HD they would not need to be carried in HD. (And by broadcasting I mean OTA transmission ... not some special HD feed to cable systems.) CBS is a bigger network and typically a CBS affiliate will be HD, but without knowing the market an absolute statement would be wrong.

The OP's comment about "no local HD" ... are any of his locals carried in HD? He mentions CBS but states "no local HD". This is where the "carry one carry all" rule for HD comes into play ... DIRECTV is not required to carry every market in HD. If they carry one of that market's stations in HD they must offer HD carriage to all stations (even unpopular ones) in HD. But if no local station is carried in HD they are not required to provide HD carriage.

Again, knowing the exact market would help. If the poster is in a market that DIRECTV only carries in SD then he would get all of his local stations in SD.

The distants issue adds additional confusion. The laws have changed several times over the past decades and having some customers under old rules and others under older rules while new customers cannot get distants in markets with locals is complicated.

The one final comment I will make is that DIRECTV is not required to offer distants. They could pull the service from any or all customers at any time. There is no law that requires distants be offered. The laws prohibit providing distants in most cases and protect providing distants in narrow cases but no law requires distants be delivered.
 
#12 ·
camo said:
Yes believe that's the way it is and he is saying CBS isn't HD. Somethings not right it may have been turned on by mistake.
Well not really. There are plenty of situations where one channel may not be Hi Definition. They also would still need a contract to carry it in Hi Definition as well. Although today you'd think any contract would include both Hi Definition and SD but you never now.
 
#14 ·
inkahauts said:
Well not really. There are plenty of situations where one channel may not be Hi Definition. They also would still need a contract to carry it in Hi Definition as well. Although today you'd think any contract would include both Hi Definition and SD but you never now.
You are full of it! Show me plenty of situations.
 
#15 ·
camo said:
You are full of it! Show me plenty of situations.
Just look at the LIL tab on Gary's transponder maps in the Tips forum. There's multiple markets where some of their networks are SD only, especially in some smaller markets where some networks reside on subchannels. Just to name a few, Fairbanks, Juneau and Great Falls if you only count the big 4, a lot more when you include PBS, The CW and MyNetworkTV

The op never gave their location, so we can't lookup their market.
 
#16 ·
KyL416 said:
Just look at the LIL tab on Gary's transponder maps in the Tips forum. There's multiple markets where some of their networks are SD only, especially in some smaller markets where some networks reside on subchannels. Just to name a few, Fairbanks, Juneau and Great Falls if you only count the big 4, a lot more when you include PBS, The CW and MyNetworkTV

The op never gave their location, so we can't lookup their market.
That's not the issue, I know there are several smaller markets without HD. You will notice they are all SD not mixed. But if any market has 1 HD on any of these ( ABC,FOX,CBS,NBC) it has to provide at least 1 HD of the other networks.
 
#17 ·
bjlc said:
Okay kids.. 14 years with Directv.. many highs and a couple of lows.. but today is the shocker.. My dvr in the kitchen stopped showing a picture.. it showed the channels and the banners at the top.. but no photo.. and last night in the middle of the night. I had a freeze up in an HBO movie.. ( never had that happen before) so I call. and later was just asking nicely if I could get Showtime for a couple of months.. The CSR that I spoke to.. immediately gave me a discount on HBO and Stars and then said her cpu was running slow.. Finally she says yes my supervisor gave you the showtime.. No biggie..
but whenever I call I always make sure that my Distants are still there. and they were.. but for WHAT EVER REASON IN THE WORLD.. I checked my locals.. WWWWHHHHAAAAAAATTT!!!! they were on.. didn't ask. didn't mention.. didn't imply, hint , discuss , or even ask about the weather in my local area.. Now what? after 14 years I should be Shreva Grandfathered.. but .. the picture quality was just what I expected.. NO LOCAL HD..( CBS LOCAL NO HD). no stereo.. I do not want to give up my distants.. No flippn' way.. I suppose the best thing to do is to sit and wait.. but right now I am shocked.. ( Claude Rains , Casablanca, 1942 102 min)
Where do you live?!?!?!!?!?
 
#18 ·
camo said:
That's not the issue, I know there are several smaller markets without HD. You will notice they are all SD not mixed. But if any market has 1 HD on any of these ( ABC,FOX,CBS,NBC) it has to provide at least 1 HD of the other networks.
The rule only applies to primary feeds of full powered commercial stations. If the network is on a subchannel or a low powered station they don't have to offer HD carriage, even if the OTA feed is HD.

It gets even more complicated when Retrans consent is involved instead of must carry. It means that they have to negotiate the rights to carry the channel in HD before they can add it in HD, even if they already carry the channel in SD. When HD locals first went live many markets were missing random stations because of this. (i.e. here in Wilkes-Barre when HD locals were added, NBC and CBS wasn't carried in HD until they renewed their deal)

In Fairbanks, the CBS affiliation is with a class A station and not a full powered station, over the air that channel is HD, on DirecTV it's SD only. In Great Falls, Fox is on subchannel of the ABC affiliate, over the air it's in HD, on DirecTV it's SD only.

Most of the subchannel affiliates are relatively new, usually when the contract comes up for renewal of the main channel, HD carriage of the subchannel affiliate is included. (i.e. the upcoming NBC Boston who's main feed is going to be a low power station in Boston and will also be carried on a subchannel of the Telemundo affiliate in southern New Hampshire, HD Carriage and channel positioning for that was included as part of the recent NBCU renewal for both DirecTV and Dish)
 
#22 ·
camo said:
Beat you to WHAT?
A complete explanation of the actual carriage rules and why some markets have HD but are not all HD.
 
#23 ·
James Long said:
We need to know the market. If the market's CBS affiliate is not broadcasting in HD they would not need to be carried in HD. (And by broadcasting I mean OTA transmission ... not some special HD feed to cable systems.) CBS is a bigger network and typically a CBS affiliate will be HD, but without knowing the market an absolute statement would be wrong.

The OP's comment about "no local HD" ... are any of his locals carried in HD? He mentions CBS but states "no local HD". This is where the "carry one carry all" rule for HD comes into play ... DIRECTV is not required to carry every market in HD. If they carry one of that market's stations in HD they must offer HD carriage to all stations (even unpopular ones) in HD. But if no local station is carried in HD they are not required to provide HD carriage.

Again, knowing the exact market would help. If the poster is in a market that DIRECTV only carries in SD then he would get all of his local stations in SD.

The distants issue adds additional confusion. The laws have changed several times over the past decades and having some customers under old rules and others under older rules while new customers cannot get distants in markets with locals is complicated.

The one final comment I will make is that DIRECTV is not required to offer distants. They could pull the service from any or all customers at any time. There is no law that requires distants be offered. The laws prohibit providing distants in most cases and protect providing distants in narrow cases but no law requires distants be delivered.
What allows him in this case to keep both is that the law says if you had DNS before locals were launched in your DMA, you are grandfathered in and can keep both. Since there are so few with DNS feeds anymore and it is harder and harder to get a DNS station, this does not apply to many anymore.

I personally have both DNS stations and my DMA's locals but I had DNS feeds before the DMA's locals were launched as well. They come in super handy. Love having them.
 
#24 ·
Do not forget that the law applies to DIRECTV. The law *allows* DIRECTV to deliver distant networks in narrowly defined cases (including grandfathered customers - under narrowly defined conditions) but does not *require* that DIRECTV deliver distant networks to any customer.
 
#25 ·
I have to say that Josh and I will never have our discussion again.. For the past.. five or six years.. always in September, we discuss whether or not I should get my locals.. and I kept putting it off.. I have to say that I gained at least one football game this Sunday.. I will also say that I am still using the 390's channels instead of my locals.. the quality is far superior.. and I will again say that my invoice still says with out locals.. and I am not going to call and tell them.. I will use them in case of severe weather or some other instance but for nothing else.. just remember I joined when Pegasus was still trying to sell Directv in my general area...that's how far back I go.. and had I known that there were the distant networks back in the day.. I would have joined Directv 10 years before that .. because that's how long I looked at them..
 
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