DMA question

I don't think anyone can accurately explain how dma's are determinined as they were first set back in the 1950's. The FCC mapped out the US with dma's given an area around them with many of them a lot bigger than others with a lot of small one's missing many network offerings. Your receiving channels or not being able to receive them have nothing to do with what you are allowed to have. In my case, I am in the NY dma even though the center of the NY dma is almost two hours drive from me while the neighboring dma is only about 20 miles. My sister who is maybe 1/4 mile from me is in the neighboring dma. Dish not offering you locals does not get you the nearest dma. Dish has another company in place you can offer you distant networks if you cannot receive yours, Atlanta happens to one of them (SF is the other) so that is probably why you would get them.

so if you are not offerec locals in your area, you automaticall can get the locals for the closet city that Dish has them?

No - you can only get the locals of the DMA area you are assigned to .The Distant Networks offering by All American Direct is done separately.

DMA stands for Designated Market Area, and these are established by Neilson according to the viewing habits of others in your area. ALL counties are assigned to one (and in a very few cases, the county is split).

No!

Dish is not allowed to give you "locals" unless they offer you your own locals. Read garys' next to last sentence.

I disagree with his analysis of DMAs. DMAs are determined via survey by Nielsen Media Research and they are updated yearly in an attempt to figure out where people from a particular area shop.

The term you were trying to think of is "significantly viewed" which is a whole other can of worms. DBS satellite generally hasn't gone the significantly viewed route yet and DISH in particular may not be allowed to do so.

Your best shot is to set yourself up for over-the-air (OTA) channel reception.

oh ok i get it now, i went to their site and it says i can buy the locals but a waiver is needed. It also says that "that network will become available once the wavier is processed." does that mean they will send something to my local networks to get the wavier signed or i do or when i pay the $3 per channel thats it i get locals? And if so what locals, Atlanta?

I would have to pay the charge every month?

Your best shot is to set yourself up for over-the-air (OTA) channel reception.
I get my locals OTA but " I THOUGHT" that since im paying the $5 to get them in the guide then i didnt want to miss out of some other locals i would be getting. But i get it now

cmtar said:

I get my locals OTA but " I THOUGHT" that since im paying the $5 to get them in the guide then i didnt want to miss out of some other locals i would be getting. But i get it now

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so you get your OTA locals information in the guide? i remember this being discussed before and a few people stated you couldn't receive guide info for markets that dish doesn't even offer. I get guides for two different markets between GA/FL, but they're both offered by dish.

brant said:

so you get your OTA locals information in the guide? i remember this being discussed before and a few people stated you couldn't receive guide info for markets that dish doesn't even offer. I get guides for two different markets between GA/FL, but they're both offered by dish.

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I get the and pay for the Lexington Ky locals from E* but I watch the locals OTA from the "other" DMA because all my weather comes from there and my county is in a 30% overlap in OTA signals fro both DMA's as well as most of my family lives there too. I get the EPG data for all the channels I can recieve through the Dish reciever from the "other" DMA.

brant said:

so you get your OTA locals information in the guide? i remember this being discussed before and a few people stated you couldn't receive guide info for markets that dish doesn't even offer. I get guides for two different markets between GA/FL, but they're both offered by dish.

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It doesn't matter if Dish supplies the locals or not. The guide and it's info are compiled by Tribune Media.

garys said:

I don't think anyone can accurately explain how dma's are determinined as they were first set back in the 1950's. The FCC mapped out the US with dma's given an area around them with many of them a lot bigger than others with a lot of small one's missing many network offerings.

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The FCC has absolutly no role in determining DMAs.

DMA stands for "Dominant Market Area" and these are determined by the AC Nielsen company.

Basicly its, with a few exceptions, based on county lines and simply is "what city's TV stations do most people watch in a county?" as determined by ratings.

Say Hooterville County is somewhere between Metropolis and Gotham City. Every year ACN will assign it to either the Metroplois or Gotham City DMA based on the ratings.

Because advertizing rates are based on DMA size, this will often cause stations to over-cover local news in rural counties on their borders, in order to get people watching and thus "caputre" the county.

It's designated market area, DMA or simply market. Here's a wiki reference.

wiki

garys said:

It doesn't matter if Dish supplies the locals or not. The guide and it's info are compiled by Tribune Media.

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that's what I thought, and even posted in another thread once. but then a couple of other folks said tribune only provides guide data for DMA's carried by dish.