Joint Statement from DirecTV & Dish Network

[Primus]

It comes direct from Dish and DirecTV.

Just seems rather odd that there are no copyright, trademark, etc small print at the end of the document. Especially considering how "legal minded" E* seems to be. Also, those logos are really bad. I would think they would want to represent themselves a bit better.

 

[riffjim4069]

I'm not sure who created that document but I seriously doubt it is an official Dish Network or DirecTV document. I certainly could have created something more professional looking.

I agree...the document says they want change, but they never tell the reader what changes they want enacted.

 

[db2]

I agree...the document says they want change, but they never tell the reader what changes they want enacted.

Nor do they say what readers can do to ensure that changes are made.

 

[riffjim4069]

Congress should actually give every one the choice of subbing to the stations they want. If I want to sub to a colorado springs CO station from Chicago, then i should be able to do so. Its no different than reading the NYC times in LA, or the Chicago tribune in Denver.

I fully agree in principle, but other laws also need to to enacted/included to ensure a level playing field. For example, I would prevent any cable programmer from charging fees if they also are accepted advertising dollars. For example, ESPN can continue to charge $2-$3 per subscriber for their channels, but they can no longer accept advertiser dollars ~OR~ they can continue to accept ad dollars, but their programming must be free to any MSO who wants to carry them. Why should consumers pay for cable programming and then be subject to ads? Additionally, "a la carte" legislation needs to be included. Customer can continue to subscribe to the megapaks if they wish, but they should also be given an a la carte option for each channel in the lineup. This way, the programmers or MSOs don't dictate the market price...the consumers do! Anyway, unless these other issues can be addressed (along with the small market broadcasters getting steam-rolled) the odds of SHVERA being changed are quite slim.

 

[ddobson]

I completely support this. I live in a small town in NW Indiana. I have written my congressman about this before. The cable TV company here offers both Chicago and South Bend Indiana stations. Yet DirecTV cannot offer me South Bend stations. What is crazier... Go 40 miles North east of me where they are much closer to South Bend and many can only get South Bend over the air, not Chicago. I'm talking LaPorte County Indiana. They too can only get Chicago!!!! Or at least that was the case last time I looked it up by Zip Code.

What I don't understand is if the cable company is allowed, why can't DirecTV and DISH? I formerly worked for the Cable Company here and they've always had South Bend since the day they started....

I currently get South Bend OTA but cannot get the NBC affiliate in digital, only analog so I'm going to loose them. I haven't watched much TV in the last month, for all I know they already shut down their analog signal but I like watching Notre Dame football on 16...

I am planning on upgrading my antenna this summer so I can continue to get South Bend stations OTA...

 

[jimg1960]

I support this also.

I live in Massachusetts and do not care about Rhode Island news and information yet I have to watch all of the Rhode Island stations only.

 

[hyperguy]

I live in Chemung County NY and we cannot get any locals just distant so I would be happy with any change. Kevin

 

[mike123abc]

I completely support this. I live in a small town in NW Indiana. I have written my congressman about this before. The cable TV company here offers both Chicago and South Bend Indiana stations. Yet DirecTV cannot offer me South Bend stations. What is crazier... Go 40 miles North east of me where they are much closer to South Bend and many can only get South Bend over the air, not Chicago. I'm talking LaPorte County Indiana. They too can only get Chicago!!!! Or at least that was the case last time I looked it up by Zip Code.

What I don't understand is if the cable company is allowed, why can't DirecTV and DISH? I formerly worked for the Cable Company here and they've always had South Bend since the day they started....

I currently get South Bend OTA but cannot get the NBC affiliate in digital, only analog so I'm going to loose them. I haven't watched much TV in the last month, for all I know they already shut down their analog signal but I like watching Notre Dame football on 16...

I am planning on upgrading my antenna this summer so I can continue to get South Bend stations OTA...

Cable companies have a different law. They carried multiple markets and were grandfathered.

When DBS came around looking to get a deal, the broadcasters got together (via the NAB) and got congress to go along with what they wanted. They wanted $$ for locals (which they got) and no out of market competition. So, each county is assigned locals based on what channel is dominate for most people in that county.

The DBS companies should be allowed to bring in locals from adjacent DMAs. To make things fair the local stations in that DMA should be able to get at least as much as any out of market local. Congress should also probably set a minimum fee like they do with superstations. Then if the local station wants to hold out for more than the minimum they face competition with adjacent markets. But the DBS companies cannot get a cheap adjacent local, they have to pay the minimum fee. And the local station cannot be forced out by adjacent locals (i.e. a station group demands their local be carried in adjacent markets as part of a carry all or you get none deal).

It is a cutthroat business. If you can get an extra $.10/sub of out of market subs it is just free cash to a local. I could see big market stations demanding they are carried as far as allowed by law. They know the subs in the backwater markets want the big stations.

 

[grampaD]

I live in Chemung County NY and we cannot get any locals just distant so I would be happy with any change. Kevin

The same situation exists in Steuben County. I live 8 miles from Buffalo DMA cutoff point and I feel that we should be able to receive our closest fully served DMA if we so desire.

 

[ryon_m1]

I think that the best solution for this problem is that you should be required to take your local DMA channels, thus preserving the income stream for local broadcasters. Then as long as you maintain that subscription to your "local" channels, you should be able to subscribe to one other local market to receive their channels at an additional cost..thus more income for local broadcasters. Thoughts???

 

[Ddevil]

I think that is a great idea, but I can tell you what the local DMA stations argument will be.

"If they have another market's channels, then they may not watch their local channels thus driving down the ratings and advertising revenue for the local stations."

I think DirecTV would love to be able to offer any channel to anyone ($$$), but the NAB is stuck in a time warp and is slow to change because they feel they need to protect the network affiliate business model. I would think even the major networks would prefer to just move to a national distribution of their programming (with feeds for each time zone).

 

[dunnsept]

I was in the same boat as most here. when I had dishnetwork, I asked for my "local" channels, they said "sure no problem" but the stations I got were from Flint, Ann Arbor both 80 to 100 miles away. I live 14 miles from the biggest PBS provider in the state, but that's not local to me?
I asked Dish about it.. they pointed their finger at the FCC, so I contacted the FCC, the FCC gave me all of their documentation that says that they (dish) can provide local channels, but that dish has to come up with some means to determine what local is.. so they use the nielson DMA zones (or whatever they're called). At the time the FCC told me that if dish wanted to give me a different area, there was nothing stopping them. but dish refused to do it and just pointed back to the FCC.
somebody earlier mentioned something about a court case, this was probably prior to that.. sometime 2003/2004 or so.
I would LOVE more TV choice, a la cart channels etc..

that's why I have C-band and FTA ;-) (had to put that plug in there )

 

[Bruno]

I know all about this CRAP.

Dont you think that the state you pay taxes in you should be able to see what kind of job the politicians are doing instead of the ones from two the states. See how they are spending your money? Be able to cheer and watch you state college teams.

With DTV they dont have the DMA for my customers but you can not get distant local because another DMA claims to have a grade B signal for a couple channels.

I had a local Oklahoma state rep come by my house asking for me to vote for him. I asked who he was and he told me my state rep. I told him to quit pulling my leg and tell me what he really wanted. He wanted my vote ..I told him my state rep was out of Texas! he said he could not be that was in another state. I said well its the one who is on my TV all the time. I told him i knew it was because he didnt want us to know just how bad of job he was doing for US in western OK. He took my name and told me i would hear from him!!

Sure enough two weeks later i got a card from him wanting me to come to a $50 per plate lunch.. SCREW YOU GUS BLACKWELL!!

Like I said they dont KARE ...and yes i know how to spell just wanted to do it that way

 

[tomcrown1]

Tomcrown thought on the DMA have been deleted due to language which would make the NAB come to never ever land.

 

[olfenite]

I agree with this, or at least I did up until a couple of months ago when I got HD. I guess I still do if I get the choice of what local channels I want.

Living near Ballinger, TX, I do all of my business in San Angelo, which is 30 miles away. I prefer watching KLST, which broadcasts out of San Angelo. However, I was forced to have Abilene locals, which I maybe go there two times a year and is over 50 miles away. I've put in my complaints to Dish Network, but they always told me that there was nothing they could do, and really, they're right. In fact, my family is subscribed to Dish Network because cable does not come out to the rural areas here, and DirecTV does not carry Abilene or San Angelo locals. Getting waivers is impossible and when you did, it was unsatisfying as I don't get local news or my Dallas Cowboys.

However, now I have the locals in HD from Abilene, and I can get KLST from the antenna, which thanks to the Dish Network technology, I am able to watch through the Dish Network receiver. I would be kind of upset if this setup were to change, as Dish Network does not have San Angelo locals in HD and I can't get FOX over the antenna at all (although this may be my fault). They just added FOX HD from Abilene (KXVA), so I would hate to lose it. I know there are a lot of people who would prefer to have San Angelo locals here for the same reason I used to want it, and I know a lot of people who live outside of Runnels county who wish they had my situation of having the Abilene locals so they could have HD locals.

Just as long as they let people have the option of what market they want, I'm fine with it. I'd be pretty miserable losing my local HDs because of a law being modified or something.

 

[Bobby H]

Just seems rather odd that there are no copyright, trademark, etc small print at the end of the document. Especially considering how "legal minded" E* seems to be. Also, those logos are really bad. I would think they would want to represent themselves a bit better.

The poor quality of those logos definitely gives that PDF an amateur hour look.

Of course it's pretty common these days for some companies to avoid embedding vector-based versions of their logos in an online PDF. It's all too easy to extract such logos and play around with them using programs like Adobe Illustrator. At the very least, if they're going to rasterize the logos into pixel grid bitmap form they might try rasterizing the things at a higher resolution so it doesn't look like they grabbed it off some tiny web page button.

 

[Primus]

I don't know. I can find much better versions of those logos from google.

dish network logo - Google Image Search

direcTV logo - Google Image Search

 

[Bobby H]

You can find even better, vector-based versions just by searching through PDFs on the D* and E* web sites. And they're the real deal, not some phony baloney re-created nonsense some fanboy posted at the "Brands of the World" web site. A password block on the PDF will trip up a lot of logo hunters.

 

[Charise]

Using the DMA only is ridiculous for those people in the "wrong" DMA according to state or miles away. The Milwaukee, WI, DMA stretches clear over to just northeast of Madison, WI (the state capital)--about 75 miles. Who really believes that for current weather information those people who live 15 miles from Madison really want the Milwaukee DMA stations which are over 75 miles away? Yeah, sure, they'll get the best storm info, right!?! And realize that much of this area is farming country where they need good weather forecasting. This is factual information on a current situation. It sure would be nice if common sense was truly common!

 

[amoni]

"Local TV commercial ad sales is the life blood of most local TV stations."

And my "local stations" are two hours away. They mention my area on the news sporadically and run zero commercials from my area. I have not, nor will I ever have any reason to frequent the sponsors who advertise on the stations. I'm not going to travel two hours for a pizza in Scranton when I can continue for another hour and have pizza in Little Italy in NYC. Even though my locals don't actually cater to me, they are the only ones I can have. They charge Dish a transmission fee and I'm paying for it, so ad revenues are only a part of their income. I want a choice. Even if we had to take our locals as a requisite for a distant channel, it would be better than having no choice.