Anyone with distants have their locals turned on this morning?

Chris Walker

SatelliteGuys Pro
Original poster
Jan 25, 2004
792
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I have NY/LA distants (I have waivers) and do not subscribe to my locals. This morning I am scrolling through the guide and I see below channel 100 that my locals are in the guide. Is this some attempt by Dish to get me to cancel my distants? I do not want these, so should I call Dish and have them removed? I am certainly not going to pay for them, but if this causes problems for my distants by just having them active, I want them gone.
 
There's another post about this also. It would seem Dish is preparing to do something! Keep us informed. You can also call dish, and after entering your account phone number or account number the system will tell you if there is any information about distants pertaining to you. You do not have to talk to a CSR or go any farther into the menu.
When I call I get the message that Dish is not replacing my Atlanta stations now as was previously planned.
 
DishSubLA said:
Please post what happens to both of you regardign this. Very interested.

I am interested too, I don't know if this is part of the settlement where Dish has to turn on locals for free for people that have distants or what. I don't want to call Dish and ask because their CSRs are clueless and if I get a dumb CSR who hits the wrong button..
 
Ok.. UPDATE

I just called Dish and entered my phone #. After it said "We see you are one of our most valued customers. blah blah blah... it said "for information about your free preview of your local channels, please press 1" So I pressed 1 and it said that I will be receiving a free preview of my my locals from now until the end of 2006 and to tune to channels 2-69 to see them. It said beginning January 1, 2007 I will begin being billed $5.99 a month for these channels. It then said if I do not want my local channels, please call a CSR and we will remove them. It also said to tune to channel 240 for more information (240 is not available). HMM, so I am thinking I need to call Dish and remove these as quickly as possible before there are potential problems?
 
I use to have both locals and distants. Had to choose one or the other a couple of years ago. Kept the distants because I like the time shift for network programming. Now I have both again. How long will this last ? How does the "distants litigation" effect this ? How does the settlement with some of the networks effect this ? All good questions, for which I have no answers. For now I will enjoy having both my locals and the distants, again.
 
SoCalSat said:
I use to have both locals and distants. Had to choose one or the other a couple of years ago. Kept the distants because I like the time shift for network programming. Now I have both again. How long will this last ? How does the "distants litigation" effect this ? How does the settlement with some of the networks effect this ? All good questions, for which I have no answers. For now I will enjoy having both my locals and the distants, again.

I've never had my locals before today. I had a notice to choose earlier this year in February I believe (on my online account) to either continue recieving distants or sign up for local channels and of course I picked keep distants. I am confused as to what to do right now, I'd like more information before I call Dish and tell them to shut them off. I'll keep them for the free three months for the hell of it if it doesn't cause problems with the distants.
 
r_childress said:
If you were Grandfathered on the Distants DO NOT under any circumstances have those turned off, if you can get locals, otherwise they are gone with no way to get them back.

Yea I wish I knew if I was grandfathered or not; I'd assume I am though. Either way there's no way I would tell Dish to turn my distants off. If I do anything I'll have them turn the locals off.
 
damn i have them alsoand like others i signed thatwaiver to keep distants about 2 years ago

hum, sat this would have been great as i missed the lsu game, lol
 
weird, my 522 has it but the 622 does not.Why would one receiver get it yet the other is unchanged as far as locals. I will see if it needs to update or something
 
I think this offer is for the accounts that may eventually have distants shut down.
Probably, accounts that have distants now and will not be shut down are not being given this free offer.

This is just conjecture on my part and not known knowledge. :(
 
I also had to choose between distants and LiLs back in March '05 and chose distants. With the recent scare about loosing distants and the new Fall season starting, I decided to add my locals back last month and did so online. So far, I've still got both but they're charging me for both too. Looks like I should have just waited.
 
One good thing is that IF the distants go poof overnight no mass rush to try to get past huge phone jams to get networks back!

My 622 still just has distants yet both receivers are connected to the same DISHes
It have a different switch than the 622 ?

well, no matter as 3 months is a long time to sort this out

the PQ is not as good as my distants that I can see right away!
 
Also just conjecture---

1- As Clancy said it maybe just in case those with DNS lose them. And/Or

2- It maybe part of "settlement" with stations that they need to add "locals", otherwise why did we have to choose Distant or Local last year. Locals may feel that it will help local news ratings - their biggest profit area. And/Or

3- You will need to pay for "locals" to keep DNS so Dish can cover the $ 100m settlement cost.

Again, Just conjecture.
 
Grandpa J said:
Also just conjecture---

1- As Clancy said it maybe just in case those with DNS lose them. And/Or

2- It maybe part of "settlement" with stations that they need to add "locals", otherwise why did we have to choose Distant or Local last year. Locals may feel that it will help local news ratings - their biggest profit area. And/Or

3- You will need to pay for "locals" to keep DNS so Dish can cover the $ 100m settlement cost.

Again, Just conjecture.

2 & 3 certainly make sense.

One other thought (and this is a stretch:D ):

By law, if HD DNS become available by your sat company (and you qualify) and that sat company also has analog locals available in your area, in order to receive the HD DNS, you MUST sub to the SD LiLs.
Fron FCC Fact Sheet:
Alternatively, you may be eligible for distant digital signals if you are “unserved” by over-the-air analog signals. “Unserved” means your household cannot receive, with a stationary outdoor rooftop antenna, an over-the-air signal of Grade B intensity, as defined by the FCC. If your household is predicted to be “unserved” by the analog signals of a network station, you qualify for the distant digital signal of that network, if it is offered by your satellite carrier. If your satellite carrier offers local-into-local analog service, you must subscribe to it in order to qualify for distant digital signals. If you qualify for distant signal service, you can only receive signals from stations located in your same time zone or in a later time zone, not in an earlier time zone. Ask your satellite carrier which distant digital signals it offers in your area.

So if Dish were getting ready to offer HD DNS (under the SHVERA), those that qualify would need to also sub to analogs locals. Like I said, it's a stretch.
 
Chris Walker said:
I have NY/LA distants (I have waivers) and do not subscribe to my locals. This morning I am scrolling through the guide and I see below channel 100 that my locals are in the guide. Is this some attempt by Dish to get me to cancel my distants? I do not want these, so should I call Dish and have them removed? I am certainly not going to pay for them, but if this causes problems for my distants by just having them active, I want them gone.
If you live in a area where ny shows network programming before your local afliate does there is a very good chance you could lose your distants waiver or not..its part of the "settlement"
 
juan said:
If you live in a area where ny shows network programming before your local afliate does there is a very good chance you could lose your distants waiver or not..its part of the "settlement"

Living in SoCal and subscribing to NY distants as I do, I'm in the exact situation you describe. I've resigned myself to the idea of losing NY distants, but I'm wondering when... Jan 1 perhaps (the end of the free trial of my LA locals)?

It's a little ironic that I was forced to choose between locals and distants last year - the locals could have had my eyeballs half of the time. Now we're back to where we were in Feb '05 - before I had to give my LA locals up.
 
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