How is it determined which TV channels I receive?

There are also areas where, due to Dish's hands being tied when it comes to importing stations, they pick a different market than Directv

North Mankato, MN is in Nicollet County. Mankato is across the river in Blue Earth County but parts of the city are in Nicollet. Nicollet county is in the Minneapolis DMA but Blue Earth is in the Mankato DMA (which is 4 counties and contains 1 station...CBS/Fox subchannel)

My address is in North Mankato. With Directv I get Minneapolis locals (as I should) and also KEYC CBS as Sig Viewed. The studios are in North Mankato. I don't get Fox from there as SV for some reason. (I've tried...online site says I should but D* can't get it fixed)
Dish subs get Mankato CBS & Fox, ABC & NBC from Minneapolis and national PBS even if they are in North Mankato. I assume its due to the fact that if they followed the rule they couldnt give North Mankato the CBS and Fox from there.

So I guess they are getting around it that way ;)
 
Where I live, our local channels is out of Indiana and my wife and I live in Illinois. It has been this way for many years, so we are just used to it. Now, if my wife and I were still with our cable company, then we could get channels from Champaign, Illinois and from Terre Haute, Indiana. We are happy with Dish, and I am just glad that we have NBC, CBS and now a local ABC based out of Terre Haute.
 
Again the fcc/neilson need to review these dmas.Charlotte may be the most watched here but I can tell you very few people of Avery County go all the way to Charlotte to shop.Asheville and Johnson City are much closer drive wise and folks do shop in both cities.
 
Again the fcc/neilson need to review these dmas.Charlotte may be the most watched here but I can tell you very few people of Avery County go all the way to Charlotte to shop.Asheville and Johnson City are much closer drive wise and folks do shop in both cities.
Nielsen reviews their borders every single year. Their boundaries for the 2012/13 season will/have changed just this summer. I haven't seen the changes yet, but they happen every year.
 
Nielsen reviews their borders every single year. Their boundaries for the 2012/13 season will/have changed just this summer. I haven't seen the changes yet, but they happen every year.

Didn't know that.If thats the case then our dma's will not change via sat.
 
DOH! I was thinking Carlisle (Warren County), not Circleville. Though, Springboro (Montgomery County/Warren County) is another good example.
I corrected the Springboro reference for you... :) I know in the past when you'd check the locals for zip code "45066", it would ask additionally what county you were in. So, if anyone thinks it goes strictly by zip code, here's a perfect example of that not being accurate.

Slightly further north, people in parts of Miamisburg (due west of Dayton Mall) were classified as being in Cincy's DMA for a long time, but only with DirecTV. The customers could do NOTHING to get it through to D* that it was wrong.
 
Again the fcc/neilson need to review these dmas.Charlotte may be the most watched here but I can tell you very few people of Avery County go all the way to Charlotte to shop.Asheville and Johnson City are much closer drive wise and folks do shop in both cities.

This is a perfect example of how I would like some clarification on this DMA boundary definition. Teehar, I live in Burke and have relatives in Newland. I can vouch for Teehar and say that many in Avery County (NC) go across the state line into Tennessee (which immediately puts one in the Johnson City-Kingsport-Bristol DMA) to shop. However, I would say there are also a significant number of Avery residents who shop in Boone (Watauga County - which is the Charlotte DMA). So, although most of Avery County may not flock to the actual CITY of Charlotte to shop, if they shop in a county (such as Watauga) does that still mean they are shopping in "Charlotte"? In other words, if a TV viewer shops anywhere in a particular DMA - not necessarily the big city where the TV stations are located - is that ALSO a factor in determining that county's DMA?

I hope what I said made some sense.
 
This is a perfect example of how I would like some clarification on this DMA boundary definition. Teehar, I live in Burke and have relatives in Newland. I can vouch for Teehar and say that many in Avery County (NC) go across the state line into Tennessee (which immediately puts one in the Johnson City-Kingsport-Bristol DMA) to shop. However, I would say there are also a significant number of Avery residents who shop in Boone (Watauga County - which is the Charlotte DMA). So, although most of Avery County may not flock to the actual CITY of Charlotte to shop, if they shop in a county (such as Watauga) does that still mean they are shopping in "Charlotte"? In other words, if a TV viewer shops anywhere in a particular DMA - not necessarily the big city where the TV stations are located - is that ALSO a factor in determining that county's DMA?
I hope what I said made some sense.


Howdy neighbor!My paternal grandmother was a Calhoun.

Anyway I don't think thats how it works but,to be honest I don't have a clue how it works.I kind of look at this way...Major cities we shop in here are Johnson City,Asheville.Not sure Boone would qualify as a major city but yea we shop there as well.I would think Boone would be more in the Winston Salem/Greensboro market than Cha.All I do know is that it's hard to figure out how the tv markets are truly determined.And as you said some clarification would be very nice.
 
Howdy neighbor!My paternal grandmother was a Calhoun.

Anyway I don't think thats how it works but,to be honest I don't have a clue how it works.I kind of look at this way...Major cities we shop in here are Johnson City,Asheville.Not sure Boone would qualify as a major city but yea we shop there as well.I would think Boone would be more in the Winston Salem/Greensboro market than Cha.All I do know is that it's hard to figure out how the tv markets are truly determined.And as you said some clarification would be very nice.

No, Boone (Watauga County) is in the Charlotte DMA (TV Market), along with Ashe County. The Greensboro market starts at Alleghany and Wilkes, then eastward. See this map http://dishuser.org/TVMarkets/Maps/north_carolina.gif
Not saying by any means that Boone is a major city, but it is the largest (in a retail sense) in Northwest North Carolina which attracts shoppers from nearby counties. The same way that most folks here around Morganton flock to Hickory to shop.
 
Yea I know its in the Charlotte dma now.Years ago it was in the Winston Salem dma or at least WXII WGHP WFMY were on cable there.
 
So, although most of Avery County may not flock to the actual CITY of Charlotte to shop, if they shop in a county (such as Watauga) does that still mean they are shopping in "Charlotte"? In other words, if a TV viewer shops anywhere in a particular DMA - not necessarily the big city where the TV stations are located - is that ALSO a factor in determining that county's DMA?

That is exactly correct. If a smaller town like Boone is the center for work, entertainment, and commerce in general for an adjoining county, then the DMA of the small town influences the DMA of the surrounding counties.
 
That is exactly correct. If a smaller town like Boone is the center for work, entertainment, and commerce in general for an adjoining county, then the DMA of the small town influences the DMA of the surrounding counties.

Therefore, if the residents of Boone (Watauga County) would conduct most of their business in a county that is NOT in the Charlotte DMA, then that could trigger a DMA change for Watauga and subsequently other counties that conduct most of their business in Watauga?
 
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.

Not the FCC. AC Nielsen determines what are known as "Designated Market Areas"..These shift every so often, for the most part though are fairly stable.
Yours is a small rural county and the only NC County in the Atalanta DMA.
DMA's are established in a few ways. One is proximity to the closest broadcast station towers. The FCC regulates that part. Each viewer must be within a reasonable distance or have some type of tie to the community from which their local tv comes.
There are exceptions. None you need be concerned because they are out West.
Trust me when I say that you are not alone. The fact is, lines have to be drawn somewhere. Here's one for ya....The States of NJ and DE have NO local tv from within their borders. NJ gets tv from New York City in the northern half and Phillly in the southern half. Delaware gets it's tv from Philly and Salisbury, MD.
Below, you will receive advise on "moving"..Pay attention.
Oh...Just one tragic story for ya.
I did an install for a customer in a rural part of SC. They had cable and a virtual shrine to South Carolina Univ football. Well, on cable this customer got tv from Columbia and Florence SC, meaning, every single Gamecocks game was on tv each Saturday. With the Dish install, and their strict interpretation of the DMA's, technically even though his home was 70 miles from Charlotte, he was in the Charlotte DMA. Uh oh..No more Gamecocks. I was not about to tell him a thing. I wouold have driven 90 miles and not gotten the job. Wasting my gas and time. Sorry , he did not ask and It's not my problem he did not preform his due diligence.
Once again, you will no doubt see advise on "moving"...Good luck.
 
yeah the map of NC is really goofy...lots of counties with out of state loclas
north_carolina.gif
Look at Scotland County. It's in the Florence, SC DMA..Now, not everyone in Scotland gets Florence locals....Here's why. There are several small hamlets on the border of Richmond County which have Richmond COunty Mailing Addresses. IN fact these people do not get home delivery of their mail. They have PO Boxes AND 9-1-1 addresses. Weird. Anyway, these people receive their locals out of Charlotte. That even though Florence is just 35 miles away while Charlotte is 65 miles away.
 
I understand what your saying.That said there has to be something to the zip code at least where sat is concerned.28657 gets Charlotte,28777 gets Greenville/Spartanburg.Most of Avery County was at one time part of the Tri Cities dma but,now you can't get them at all with sat.WCYB used to have news trucks come here when I was growing up now you never see them.They do still make local school announcements and weather statements.

I does go by Zip Code. See my second to last post regarding Scotland and Richmond counties. One can live in one county but get their mail delivered from an adjacent county. The zip code on the mailing address of the residence is the detrmining factor as you the DMA.
 
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