SHVIA - whose locals are affected?

[Hotdish]

Hi, don't know if anyone out there is looking at the Satellite Home Viewer Improvement Act (SHVIA) renewal process going on down in Washington?

One of the important items up for discussion is that a renewal could require that DTV and DISH offer all locals in the same market on the same satellite dish. So you could not have a situation, for example, where DISH would deliver CBS, FOX, ABC, and NBS from 110W and then deliver PBS and UVN from 61.5W.

DISH has told Congress that it would be forced to withdraw local service in up to 30 markets if the bill becomes law in its current rough draft form.

Does anyone have any insight as to which markets would be affected and how bad the impact would be? How could DISH fix the problem and still offer locals in those markets?

Thanks!

 

[Peter Parker]

DISH could offer entire markets at 61.5 or 148. I don't think that you will ever find a list of markets affected. Tell your representatives up in Washington what you think. But don't swallow political or corporate rhetoric whole.

 

[Kevinw]

Atlanta locals have TBS and 1 PBS on 61.5 Since TBS is available as a national feed they could remove it and then move the the 1 PBS if they choose. Of course then I would have to remove the extra DISH, get a new LNB and get rid of the switch I just had isnstalled.

 

[Mr Tony]

What locals??

 

[boba]

If I was going to guess which locals DISH would remove I would guess at the cities added last. The cities with the largest population were the first added so the last ones added would have the least affect on subscribers.

 

[James Long]

Does anyone have any insight as to which markets would be affected and how bad the impact would be? How could DISH fix the problem and still offer locals in those markets?

There are currently 66 channels in 21 markets on 61.5º and 72 channels in 22 markets on 148º (unless I miscounted, but if so that is close).

The fix to keep all 43 of those markets active they would need to move those 138 channels on to the same location as the rest of each individual markets. Some of those markets are only one or two channels, and I suspect they are the 13 or so markets that E* would keep ... perhaps with some shuffling to boot some markets FROM 119/110 to be completely on the wings.

If they moved just the wing channels to 105º or 121º there still would be a stink over replacement dishes. And in the "draft" form their best response would be to move the "30 lost markets" to the new FSS satellites so they can at least be on the same "SuperDish". They need to keep ENTIRE markets on one satellite.

Recently E* did bring a couple channels in from the wings.

JL

 

[jcruz]

Here in the Philadelphia area we only have the major channels on 110.
There are about 5 more channels on the wings satellite.
I don't think DISH has the space to move those channels into 110. And I think they don't want to push everyone to get a second dish to get their locals in a major market.

 

[dlsnyder]

A BIG problem for them would be the LA market. There are 22 local stations spread out over three satellites. On top of that LA is a distant network market so at least four of them have to stay on 119. They would have to do some major reshuffling in order to get all of the LA locals on 119 unless the duplicated some on 148.

 

[Peter Parker]

They dont have to move every market to the side sat. Just some. It could be done. But then any sub who cant se the side sat would be upset. But LA, etc could stay where they are.

 

[jrbdmb]

For example, on the east coast I could see the "minor" locals for NYC, Philadelphia, Washington, and Boston moving from the wings to 110/119. As a result, smaller markets like Burlington and Harrisburg would be pushed either to 61.5 or 105. To make room for all the L.A. locals, they may not have much choice but to move San Diego to 105 / 148.

 

[Mr Tony]

-Move all int'l to 121
-put new local markets on 61.5 (east coast) or 148 (west coast)
-move existing smaller locations to wings or SD
-move minor locals to main