Out of market channels on satellite

[bpatrick]

I have had DirecTV for several years and asked to have New York
and Los Angeles stations included (although I dropped Fox Los Angeles),
since I could already get my local stations over-the-air (this was in
analog days). When the switch to digital came, I sprang for my local
channels but was allowed to keep NYC and LA (and, in fact, I keep
them mainly because our CBS affiliates have a tendency to pre-empt
CBS's college basketball coverage for ACC games, and I'm a Kentucky
fan who's more likely to see them on WCBS or KCBS; I also watch
several things on WABC).

As for the local channels, technically we should not be getting any
but those in the Raleigh/Durham DMA but we also get WFMY (CBS 2)
Greensboro and WGHP (Fox 8) High Point, NC, I think in part due to
popular demand (Charter Communications carries them as well) since
WFMY was the first station in this area (1949) and WGHP has always
had a following, even when it was an ABC affiliate. However, DirecTV
does not provide WXII (NBC 12) or WXLV (ABC 45) from Winston-Salem,
some 60 miles away, nor does it provide PBS, the CW, MyNetwork, or ION from
the Triad; all of those come from Raleigh/Durham. In other words, we have 2
CBS affiliates (WFMY and WRAL), 2 Fox affiliates (WGHP and WRAZ), and only
one of all the others among the local channels.

 

[ssetta]

I think this thread should also apply to Telco services such as Verizon FiOS. Because in a lot of areas, you can get out-of-market channels on cable but not FiOS. The biggest example is here in Massachusetts. In several areas close to the RI border, cable companies Comcast and Charter carry the Providence NBC affiliate, WJAR. Though I think that's only because Charter has been the primary cable provider in the Worcester area for YEARS and years and years. And I can almost guarantee that if they redid their system, they would remove it from their lineup. On the other hand, ABC affiliate WMUR in Manchester, NH is available in the ENTIRE Boston DMA on DirecTV, Dish, and even Verizon FiOS. I have to say that I think that servies like FiOS & AT&T U-Verse are more like satellite than they are like cable in that regard.

 

[Apollo7979]

My sister lives in Lafayette Indiana, & her market only has 1 TV station. Cable TV is allowed to carry the Indianapolis stations, along with WLFI Lafayette (the only TV station, which is also CBS), & have permission to carry WTTW Chicago, & the subchanels in the digital tier (including WTTW Prime, Create, & V-Me). On satellite, she would automatically be eligible for New York & Los Angeles stations on DirecTV (except for WCBS & KCBS, due to being in WLFI's Grade A coverage area), but not sure about Dish Network.

Actually with DirecTV in Lafayette, IN, you get WLFI plus all the offered Indianapolis stations including Indy's CBS affiliate, WISH-TV. In addition, WTIU in Bloomington is offered as a secondary PBS, plus Lafayette residents have access to the PBS National Feed, which is remapped to channel 65. We didn't get PBS Net until WIPB in Muncie was dropped by DirecTV earlier this year.

 

[anotherguyTN]

The Jackson, TN area is odd because of being between Memphis and Nashville, although Memphis is actually closer. There are two cable systems, Charter, and E+ from the Jackson Energy Authority. Both have WREG (CBS), WMC (NBC), WKNO (PBS), and WHBQ (Fox) from Memphis, and WBBJ (ABC), WLJT (PBS), and WJKT (Fox) from Jackson. E+ carries WSMV (NBC) and WTVF (CBS) from Nashville, but Charter doesn't. If I had the choice I would definitely rather have E+, but where I live Charter is the only choice.  :-\

Satellite really gets strange. Both DirecTV and Dish have WBBJ, WLJT, and WJKT, but neither of them have any stations from Memphis. DirecTV has WSMV, WTVF, and WNAB (CW) from Nashville, but Dish is the strangest of all. They get CBS from KFVS in Cape Girardeau, MO and NBC from WPSD in Paducah, KY, although this may change soon with NBC coming to an LP station in Jackson in the near future. This makes absolutely no sense since Jackson is further away from them than either Memphis or Nashville.  Meanwhile neighboring counties get the Memphis packages and can't get the Jackson channels. ???

 

[Jazz_Kat]

The Jackson, TN area is odd because of being between Memphis and Nashville, although Memphis is actually closer. There are two cable systems, Charter, and E+ from the Jackson Energy Authority. Both have WREG (CBS), WMC (NBC), WKNO (PBS), and WHBQ (Fox) from Memphis, and WBBJ (ABC), WLJT (PBS), and WJKT (Fox) from Jackson. E+ carries WSMV (NBC) and WTVF (CBS) from Nashville, but Charter doesn't. If I had the choice I would definitely rather have E+, but where I live Charter is the only choice. :-\

Satellite really gets strange. Both DirecTV and Dish have WBBJ, WLJT, and WJKT, but neither of them have any stations from Memphis. DirecTV has WSMV, WTVF, and WNAB (CW) from Nashville, but Dish is the strangest of all. They get CBS from KFVS in Cape Girardeau, MO and NBC from WPSD in Paducah, KY, although this may change soon with NBC coming to an LP station in Jackson in the near future. This makes absolutely no sense since Jackson is further away from them than either Memphis or Nashville. Meanwhile neighboring counties get the Memphis packages and can't get the Jackson channels. ???

I live north of Jackson area. We had all three, cable, Direct, and Dish. Cable, back when we have a few years ago, had the Jackson and Memphis markets. Then we move to Direct, which I think at the time only had the Memphis market. Now, we have Dish, we used to just get the Memphis market, then they added the Jackson stations and finally WPSD and KFVS. Lots of good choices then. Then, a couple of years ago, they (Dish) drop the Memphis market, which makes sense because they mainly covered Memphis and only went as far Jackson in coverage. So, we now get WBBJ, (Awful station, don't get the locals started ) WJKT, (Another like station like WBBJ, stays on sometimes, then sometimes it's off on sat and rabbit ears) and WLJT is a good station. WPSD and KFVS do cover northwest Tennessee and seem to cover us pretty good. JMO. : )

The LP station when it gets up and running sounds good, but I hope we get to keep WPSD as well.

Like I said in an ealier post, we don't get a local CW or My Network. So, through Dish we have the Superstation package. KTLA, WPIX, KWGN, WSBK, WWOR. Awesome deal for seven dollars.

 

[anotherguyTN]

WPSD and KFVS would make sense if Dish's Jackson package was in more counties in NW TN, but considering it's mainly in Madison county and maybe 2 or 3 other surrounding counties Memphis or Nashville would make more sense. I live in Crockett County, which gets the Memphis package for both DirecTV and Dish, even though it's next to Madison County.

I'm still waiting to see what happens with the NBC LP station in Jackson. It will probably be OK for getting NBC as long as they don't go pre-emption crazy, but somehow I get the feeling that they could end up being all cheap programming and infomercials when they're local. I haven't seen any ads anywhere that they're coming, like they've at least been delayed.

 

[ding12]

I think this thread should also apply to Telco services such as Verizon FiOS. Because in a lot of areas, you can get out-of-market channels on cable but not FiOS. The biggest example is here in Massachusetts. In several areas close to the RI border, cable companies Comcast and Charter carry the Providence NBC affiliate, WJAR. Though I think that's only because Charter has been the primary cable provider in the Worcester area for YEARS and years and years. And I can almost guarantee that if they redid their system, they would remove it from their lineup. On the other hand, ABC affiliate WMUR in Manchester, NH is available in the ENTIRE Boston DMA on DirecTV, Dish, and even Verizon FiOS. I have to say that I think that servies like FiOS & AT&T U-Verse are more like satellite than they are like cable in that regard.

There's nothing stopping Fios to offer the same locals as the cable system. However, Fios is choosing to have less local lineups (that is, lineups varying from county to county), and is choosing consistency/ simplicity.

However, there are a few exceptions that they have accommodated. Fios in Mercer Co. NJ does carry both Philly & NY stations. Fios in Howard Co. MD does carry the big 4 DC stations with the Baltimore stations. This is partially because people in Princeton tend to identify with NY and want their NYC channels, and Howard County residents think they are in DC's metro when they are closer to Baltimore, but want their DC channels. Fios would otherwise have a hard time selling their services (from subscribers of Comcast) without the bigger market stations.

In Central DE, the Salisbury stations have must-carry rights (Salisbury is closer to Dover, than Philly) and Fios is more or less required to carry them. So, central DE Fios does get Philly and Salisbury on Fios.

Fios has the means and follows the same regulations as cable in terms of locals.

 

[azumanga]

There's nothing stopping Fios to offer the same locals as the cable system. However, Fios is choosing to have less local lineups (that is, lineups varying from county to county), and is choosing consistency/ simplicity.

One consequence of this is that more local channels are being carried marketwide within Verizon's service area, rather than just their locality. In Verizon's service area in Florida, which stretches from Pasco County south to southern Sarasota County and as far east as Lake Wales in Polk County, Fios offers WWSB (ABC) from Sarasota (in addition to WFTS), WXAX-LP (Azteca America) from Tampa, and WZRA-CA (multicultural) from Oldsmar, in northeastern Pinellas County. On traditional Bright House and Comcast cable, WWSB is seen only in Manatee and Sarasota Counties, WXAX in Hillsborough only, and WZRA on Bright House in northern Pinellas only.

 

[vchimpanzee]

I'm much closer to one My Network affiliate than another, and I believe it's true that other My Network station has a signal that won't reach my area even with a typical antenna. I can watch the closer station with an antenna and used to all the time before I started having problems. But I watch the other station on cable for movies more than I watch any other station's local programming. Until recently, probably more than all local stations combined. The signal wasn't ideal in the days of analog but I did like their movies.

On cable, we used to get the Big Three and maybe Fox from both markets. Now it's just CBS. All the others are Charlotte. In the next county, it's just the Fox station that's out-of-market.

 

[JeeperOne]

Historically, cities and/or suburbs were tied to one central city, though. The scenario actually gets more complicated now that some people live in exurban areas and bedroom communities that could be tied to one than one large city.

For example, my mom lives in Temecula, California- an exurb that is part of the Los Angeles TV market due to its location in Riverside County. They also receive KUSA, a San Diego market station, on Fios though.

KUSA is the NBC affiliate here in Denver (Not San Diego)

Are you sure you're not thinking of KWGN by some chance?

Cheers & 73 ;D

 

[justpassingthough]

Historically, cities and/or suburbs were tied to one central city, though. The scenario actually gets more complicated now that some people live in exurban areas and bedroom communities that could be tied to one than one large city.

For example, my mom lives in Temecula, California- an exurb that is part of the Los Angeles TV market due to its location in Riverside County. They also receive KUSA, a San Diego market station, on Fios though.

KUSA is the NBC affiliate here in Denver (Not San Diego)

Are you sure you're not thinking of KWGN by some chance?

Cheers & 73 ;D

The other poster was correct, it is KUSI out of San Diego. That was a typo on my part.

 

[spencerkarter85]

You didn't mentioned that if they lived in a market where they don't carry local-into-local service like DirecTV for example. They have to apply for a waiver to their local affiliates for NY/LA feeds (in SD) and NY HD feeds of 4 networks in Eastern/Central or LA HD feeds in Mountain/Pacific zones. You can blame the NAB for this. I think the National Association of Broadcasters should be banned from lobbying in Congress.