K R Kimmel said:
Under SHIVA (the law originally allowing LIL) you can only receive the locals from the DMA in which you reside. SHERVA (recently passed law that re-authorizes LIL) contains language dealing with "significantly viewed stations" that will allow you to receive stations located outside of you DMA that meet certain criteria regarding viewership in your area once it goes into effect.
Generally correct, though the initials are SHVERA, it isn't 100% passed yet (the President could sign it next week, but that's a formality), and it was required to re-authorize distants for another 5 years (the LIL provisions of SHVIA were permanent).
As a rule, if your cable system where you live in the Huntsville area carries UPN/WB from Birmingham or Nashville, then E* will be allowed to add that to your Huntsville package. If they carry it, the cable company had to get a "significantly viewed" determination from the FCC; under SHVERA, that will carry over to satellite customers in the area. Whenever they're available, you MUST subscribe to the Huntsville LIL package to get these stations.
Technically, they could do it as soon as SHVERA is signed. However, there are two specific actions E* may want to wait for:
- Within 60 days after SHVERA is signed, the FCC must publish a list of "significantly viewed" determinations it has made over the years. Though this part isn't specifically required immediately, SHVERA does require the FCC to post this list on its website and update it within 10 business days after any new determination. Until then, the only way for carriers to legally be sure they can do it is to research the FCC archives themselves, which would probably take at least 60 days to complete for all markets; so don't expect it for at least 60 days, regardless.
- The law does require the FCC to write implementing rules within one year of passage, including determinations as to whether or not the "network nonduplication" and "syndex" rules will apply to satellite. Offerings of duplicate network stations will probably be delayed for this rulemaking, but except for "syndex" (which few syndication agreements allow for anymore), I don't see where that would block importing stations from neighboring markets where there is no local network station (as with UPN and WB in Huntsville). If they didn't intend for "significantly viewed" to be available before the rulemaking, then why must the FCC publish the list within 60 days of passage?
Bottom line: Unless you have another reason to "move", don't do it just to get UPN/WB. It's illegal (though most get away with it as long as there's not a dish where you "move" to), you'll lose your Huntsville locals (and with it your chance to legally get UPN/WB from neighboring markets within a year), and if the Birmingham or Nashville spotbeams don't reach you in Huntsville, it won't work. You can always drop the superstations when they add UPN/WB in Huntsville.
Also, is there a low-power UPN and/or WB affiliate in Huntsville? If so, SHVERA has other new provisions that encourage (though they don't require) the addition of low-power stations in LIL markets. Adding UPN/WB low-powers is probably the first place that new law would be invoked.
