How is it determined which TV channels I receive?

[pcanup]

I live in Clay County, NC, just over the GA border. For both Dish and DirectTV, we are in the Atlanta market. That means we get no in-state channels and so do not get state news or election results. I am having a very difficult time finding out why we can't get these stations. Who determines this? Who put us in the Atlanta market? I'm told it has to do with FCC regulations, but I am writing an article on this topic for our local paper and need a better explanation than that. Please help.

 

[Mr Tony]

Nielsen is the one who decides what county is in what market

 

[Mr Tony]

on a side note...there are usually examples in every state where there is a "orphan" county

 

[KE4EST]

pcanup!! I am in Cherokee county right next door to you and guess what I get? Chattanooga, TN Locals. Wanna hear something more crazy, you know that county to the north of us, Graham. Well they get Asheville, NC Locals. So three counties all next to each other in WNC and they all get different locals. I for the most part am happy, though. I like the ones out of Chattanooga better than Atlanta, but I wish I could get the PBS out of NC. They have a lot of shows just for NC that is actually made here and a few are made right here in Cherokee, Clay, Graham and Macon Counties.

I was always told it has to do with advertising. They figure people in Clay are more likely to go to Atlanta for shopping, us to Chattanooga etc.

So in other words Atlanta wants you to see their advertising.

 

[Mr Tony]

yeah the map of NC is really goofy...lots of counties with out of state loclas

 

[Bobby]

Maybe he could 'move' to Macon county..... That would fix it, at least for Ashville.

 

[Voyager6]

The good thing about this is that you probably receive the spotbeams for all three of these areas. You could "move" (i.e. change your service address) to the county from which the locals you want to receive are.

 

[pcanup]

But who has the authority?

Nielsen is the one who decides what county is in what market

Ok, I get that the DMA's are determined by Neilson ratings. But, Neilson doesn't have any authority over the satellite companies, right? In other words, does Dish decide what I see based on Neilson ratings? And where do FCC regulations fit into this picture? What I am getting at is...who is responsible for this mess?

 

[pcanup]

Thanks. That map is quite interesting.

 

[videonex]

Ok, I get that the DMA's are determined by Neilson ratings. But, Neilson doesn't have any authority over the satellite companies, right? In other words, does Dish decide what I see based on Neilson ratings? And where do FCC regulations fit into this picture? What I am getting at is...who is responsible for this mess?

You're almost there!

Neilsen determines the DMA and the FCC simply makes it official. FCC is ultimately your answer but only because Neilsen did their part first.

 

[Skee7ix]

Yeah, NC is strange, the family of my wife lives there, in Duplin Co, and is closer to Wilmington, is where everybody goes shopping and all, but get the Greenville locals.
Wilmington is about 30 minutes from there and Greenville like 2 hours

 

[Cold Irons]

And to answer the OP's real question - Dish & DirectTV have no control over this.

 

[Tampa8]

You have encountered the woefully inept, clueless, outdated FCC. Obviously you should have a choice of your own State for locals. Well obviously to us, not the FCC. It took a congressional bill to let NH residents get a NH channel. I could go on but it would fill several pages. :rant:

 

[harshness]

Ok, I get that the DMA's are determined by Neilson ratings. But, Neilson doesn't have any authority over the satellite companies, right?

The Nielsen (note the correct spelling) DMA maps are incorporated by reference into STELA so if Nielsen changes the maps, the regulations change accordingly.

It is probably important to note that STELA is the brainchild of the US Congress and the FCC's connection is that they are in charge of implementing and enforcing it.

 

[Barry Erick]

In short, DMA's are determined by ratings. If a county gets more viewers from tv station tvn in abc county and it previously was in def county, the dma changes and you get tv from abc station instead of def station. Very screwy in the fringes and it is usually determined by the cable companies, who may put a better signal on their system from one station than another and there's your ballgame.

 

[wlwgampa]

Until about 2 years ago, where I live in Franklin County PA we were able to get both the Harrisburg/York PA and Washington DC DMA's. The closest station to us is in Hagerstown MD, about 15 miles away from us, which is in the Washington DMA. Now our locals are all the Harrisburg DMA, which is fine, but we get our local news from Hagerstown. Tood bad we can't just have that station added to our Harrisburg locals. If I do any upgrades or changes to my system, I will lose the DC DMA (Hagerstown). Kinda sucks!!!

 

[djacobson]

If DMAs are determined by ratings and you only get the station from 1 provider through your dish how can the ratings from that station change.The viewers have no choice.A better way would be to determine the transmission footprint of the station and call that the DMA.The people in the areas that are covered by 2 stations and the same network maybe a ratings could work.If your out of the off air transmission range of any station you should be able to choose who you want.Currently I think alot of stations are letting their off air transmission suffer in favor of retransmission fees to the satellite companies and the DMA has got you locked in.

 

[johnny58259]

I live in the Raleigh market but buy looking at how many miles I am away from the Greensboro area stations determined by atenna web I should be getting greensbro locals cause I'm closer to these stations but I get Raleigh so is what I did im with directv and I have a am21 off air tuner which picks up greensbro locals with my outside atenna. Just a thought.Ive had dish also with dish I had to do the same thing get the off air tuner to pick up my greensbro locals.

 

[johnny58259]

Solid signal or dish depot are good online retailers for these off air tuners.

 

[pcanup]

What about significantly viewed stations?

I live in the Raleigh market but buy looking at how many miles I am away from the Greensboro area stations determined by atenna web I should be getting greensbro locals cause I'm closer to these stations but I get Raleigh so is what I did im with directv and I have a am21 off air tuner which picks up greensbro locals with my outside atenna. Just a thought.Ive had dish also with dish I had to do the same thing get the off air tuner to pick up my greensbro locals.

I went to a web site which determined that where we are in the mountains, we would not get any antennae reception. There are some people in our county who do not get cable or fiber optics, so they really do not have access to in-state news. I'm wanting to know if they could apply for a "significantly-viewed" station in our state?