Posted on 04/12/2007 11:37:41 PM PDT by mukraker
I'd like to ask for your help.
I'm a Directv subscriber. Have been since 1998. Back then, I couldn't get local programming via Directv, so i subscribed to their network feeds from NY & LA.
Since then, Directv has expandd it's capacity, and now carries signals from virtually every local market in the U.S. Directv now has the ability to deliver local television programming from any market in the country.
The probelm is the FCC.
Under the Satellite Home Viewer Act, and it's subsequent revisions, Directv can provide "local-to-local" programming. That means, if they carry the signals from your local television stations, they can provide you with those signals, but NOT programming from local stations outside your local market area.
I live in a seasonal area of the country. People live here part of the year, and live in other areas of the country during other parts of the year. Many of these people like to stay in touch with what's going on back home while they're away.
Directv has the technical ability to provide these signals across the country. But they're prevented from providing this programming by the federal government.
I look at this from a capitalistic comsumer-driven perspective. If Directv has the ability to provide me with programming from, say Orlando, and I'm willing to subscribe to that service, as a consumer, I should be able to purchase that product.
If my local television station wants me as a viewer, let them compete in an open market with other stations for my viewership. Let them provide programming I want. If they don't, I should have the freedom to take my viewership to a station that provides the programming I want.
If you agree, please contact your Congressman and Senators and demand they amend the Satellite Home Viewer Act, so as to allow you, as a consumer, to pick the programming you want, regardless of geography.
Thanks.
To find your Congressman, click on http://www.house.gov/
To find your Senators, click on http://www.senate.gov/
Not with spotbeam technology they don't. The only way you're going to get any government action is if the FCC goes back and redefines the Designated Market Area maps, which defines which TV market you're in. DirecTV and DISH Network go by ZIP Code on your bill or when you sign up and give them a street address, town, state, and ZIP code.
DirecTV has no stations that serve my area, so I get networks from NYC and Los Angeles.
I switched to DirecTV from DISH after the first of the year, because DISH didn't have CBS or FOX when they took NYC and Los Angeles off my account in December last year.
I remember calling my congress critter 5-6 years ago...I was having a superbowl party and my c-band, 10 foot dish wouldn’t be broadcasting it due to some silly a$$ rule. Blistered the poor fool who had to listen to me rant...
For example a specific NBC affiliate has rights to a specific area to distribute NBC programming. If end users could get NBC programming through other means that local affiliate would be losing their exclusive rights to that programming for that area. NBC protects their local affiliates just like many business protect their local sales districts.
Your local ABC affiliate has an exclusive right to broadcast ABC network programming in your area. If DirecTV is allowed to sell you a distant ABC station, then they are violating your local station's exclusivity.
Then there is the opposite. Oprah licenses their program market by market. If DirecTV is allowed to sell a station that carries the Oprah show into a market that doesn't carry it, DirecTV is violating the property rights of Harpo productions (as if I really care) because that distant station does not have the right to show Oprah in your market.
If you live in an area that is not served by a particular network affiliate, you are allowed to purchase a network owned and operated station. If there is a local affiliate, you are not.
If you happen to live in an area that is served by a local affiliate, but DirecTV doesn't carry local-into-local for your market, you have to stick up an antenna.
Maybe it sucks for you, but it keeps broadcasting alive. If you put local stations out of business, you will lose local news and other local programming as well.
There is an 'out', and that is to get a waiver from the local station in order to purchase the designated national feed. But good luck in getting one.
DB has it exactly right. They pay a lot for those exclusive rights. That you cannot get the local feed from your hometown everywhere is a pure, glorious capitalism.
The FCC can only enforce what Congress legislates. I know satellite technicians, and I know for a fact the Directv has the ability to deliver the signal from every local station they carry to any customer they serve.
Those exclusive contracts are only exclusive through federal legislation. Right now, I receive both my local CBS channel and the CBS east coast and west coats network feeds. (I know, don't ask about CBS.) I still choose to view my local channel for local events. Otherwise, it's rare I even watch CBS, no matter where the signal originates.
I just think it should be my right to choose with whom I do business, as a consumer, absent any federal mandates dictating who gets to provideme with my service.
The satellite providers would love to sell you more services.
In capitalism, if the seller doesn’t want to sell, they don’t. You have no right to their product beyond the conditions they are willing to sell them to you for.
Yea...what he said.
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