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Why am I seeing an advertisement for RI health care on ESPN?

Kelly A said:
ESPN is a national network with local/regional spots run by the cable provider in slots designated for that region. It just seems like a strange thing to be upset about.
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The fact that I'm stuck watching WJAR's weather cut-ins during the Today Show bothers me. I live in MA, not RI.

Accessing Boston local news is not a problem here - the local stations stream their newscasts online now free of charge. But seeing an ad for RI health care on ESPN just reminded me that I don't live in RI. And if Comcast/Xfinity is "locally inserting" this ad, they're wasting their time. They don't even serve RI, Cox is the cable provider there!

Individuals in this general area align themselves with Boston, NOT Providence. It makes no sense to me whatsoever that someone in Easton has to watch WJAR on a pay service but someone in Uxbridge doesn't.

What the f**k needs to be done to rectify this miscarriage of justice? And is there anything I can do to get the ball rolling?
 
kramie13 said:
The fact that I'm stuck watching WJAR's weather cut-ins during the Today Show bothers me. I live in MA, not RI.

Accessing Boston local news is not a problem here - the local stations stream their newscasts online now free of charge. But seeing an ad for RI health care on ESPN just reminded me that I don't live in RI. And if Comcast/Xfinity is "locally inserting" this ad, they're wasting their time. They don't even serve RI, Cox is the cable provider there!

Individuals in this general area align themselves with Boston, NOT Providence. It makes no sense to me whatsoever that someone in Easton has to watch WJAR on a pay service but someone in Uxbridge doesn't.

What the f**k needs to be done to rectify this miscarriage of justice? And is there anything I can do to get the ball rolling?
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Dude. Chill. You are going into complete meltdown. “Miscarriage of justice”? Please.
 
kramie13 said:
<...>
What the f**k needs to be done to rectify this miscarriage of justice? And is there anything I can do to get the ball rolling?
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Posting this on a small, insignificant Internet forum is sure to get right to the person that makes that decision...or not!
 
Assuming your question is serious: get to know your lawmakers at the state and federal level. They have power to push cable and satellite providers to offer the in-state signals you want. It's been done before - out in the Berkshires, the cable company was poised to drop WWLP, the NBC affiliate from Springfield, because Berkshire County is in the Albany NY TV market. WWLP ended up staying on cable in a modified form - no syndication or NBC programming, just a loop of its most recent local newscast.

But really, does it matter in 2024? Local TV via cable and satellite is dying incredibly quickly and will probably be gone in less than a decade. Any halfway decent antenna will get you the Boston signals you want for free, and you can use a Tablo or something similar to DVR and stream those signals anywhere in or out of your house.

And one more thing: whatever your obsession with state lines might be, I guarantee you that if there's severe weather hitting Bristol County, WJAR and WPRI will be paying more specific attention to it than the Boston stations. It's in their local market, whether you want it to be or not.
 
fybush said:
Assuming your question is serious: get to know your lawmakers at the state and federal level. They have power to push cable and satellite providers to offer the in-state signals you want. It's been done before - out in the Berkshires, the cable company was poised to drop WWLP, the NBC affiliate from Springfield, because Berkshire County is in the Albany NY TV market. WWLP ended up staying on cable in a modified form - no syndication or NBC programming, just a loop of its most recent local newscast.

But really, does it matter in 2024? Local TV via cable and satellite is dying incredibly quickly and will probably be gone in less than a decade. Any halfway decent antenna will get you the Boston signals you want for free, and you can use a Tablo or something similar to DVR and stream those signals anywhere in or out of your house.

And one more thing: whatever your obsession with state lines might be, I guarantee you that if there's severe weather hitting Bristol County, WJAR and WPRI will be paying more specific attention to it than the Boston stations. It's in their local market, whether you want it to be or not.
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All true too. Also when the TV DMA's were designed when they considered what was the right decisions of the time based on the population of the time, FCC requirements and business decisions.
 
Y2kTheNewOldies said:
All true too. Also when the TV DMA's were designed when they considered what was the right decisions of the time based on the population of the time, FCC requirements and business decisions.
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The original TV survey area (the metros are defined by Nielsen or ARB and Nielsen in the past) was defined by a simple criteria of "which home market's stations get the most viewing".

Because of that, when Community Antenna TV systems were built to bring in distant stations to unserved areas, stations that were far off often defined the market. For example, Salt Lake City's survey area included CO, NV, MT and WY portions.

For all practical purposes, the ratings companies defined the markets based on viewing. There was really no government intervention. Market definitions in radio are often changing as listening in the farther counties may change over time.

TV markets are different from radio markets. And neither has anything to do with the OMB and Census definitions of Metropolitan Statistical Areas; those are not defined by listening but by commerce and commuting.
 
Just going to say this. The way ADIs were built depended on which set of stations had the most viewing.

If people in Rehoboth originally received a better signal from Providence stations and watched Providence stations more of the time, of course they'd be drawn into the Providence ADI.
 
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