DIRECTV Applauds Enactment of Satellite TV Bill

[Scott Greczkowski]

DIRECTV Applauds Enactment of Satellite TV Bill

EL SEGUNDO, Calif., May 27, 2010 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- DIRECTV released the following statement today:

"On behalf of the millions of Americans who rely on satellite television, DIRECTV applauds President Obama and Congress for enacting into law the Satellite Television Extension and Localism Act. By maintaining a focus on the needs of satellite customers, the new law ensures uninterrupted network programming, particularly for those living in rural America."

 

[JohnH]

Well, it ain't as much fun as having all 13 of the original Distant Network Cities at the same time, but it is okay.

 

[shkarter1985]

Question

Well, it ain't as much fun as having all 13 of the original Distant Network Cities at the same time, but it is okay.

What do you mean by that?

 

[JohnH]

Way back then, there was no limit on how many cities could be offered as distant networks. DIRECTV offered 2 and DiSH Network offered 13. I had them all for a while. One other person also had all 13 from DiSH Network at the same time. My comment is not about DIRECTV vs. DiSH, but about the law which allowed the unlimited number of cities now only allows 2.

 

[cfb]

Yeah, I really liked it back when directv and ussb were separate companies and you had both the NY and LA local/nationals on at the same time. It was nice to be able to watch shows from two different time zones and have a pretty good variety of bi-coastal sports to watch without paying extra.

It was nice to watch the 'late night' shows at 8 or 9:00 at night too.

It never really bothered me that I didnt see local advertising, probably because I never bought anything from anybody because I saw an ad on tv. I guess it bothered the heck out of the cable companies and the local broadcasters though.

 

[mikedz4]

yeah it was nice when satellite allowed you to receive any locals you wanted.

 

[Brewer4]

Yeah, I really liked it back when directv and ussb were separate companies and you had both the NY and LA local/nationals on at the same time. It was nice to be able to watch shows from two different time zones and have a pretty good variety of bi-coastal sports to watch without paying extra.

It was nice to watch the 'late night' shows at 8 or 9:00 at night too.

It never really bothered me that I didnt see local advertising, probably because I never bought anything from anybody because I saw an ad on tv. I guess it bothered the heck out of the cable companies and the local broadcasters though.

I had Primestar and the East and West Coast channels too. There was no need for NFL Sunday Ticket. I just thought the whole thing was sooo cool.

 

[david_gilbert]

what do you mean about can't get E/W feeds? we don't have locals available here yet, and i get both east and west coast SD feeds for Fox and NBC. only get the east coast for HD, but thats not a big deal.

 

[televisionarchives]

I had Primestar and the East and West Coast channels too. There was no need for NFL Sunday Ticket. I just thought the whole thing was sooo cool.

I remember those days as well but I bet you the NFL had a hand in this as well. When I was with Dish I switched to the local boston stations for just that reason. This was before Spotbeams and Dish Network had Boston as a local channel for just about anyone that wanted it.

 

[Bullet]

Does this new law now enable me to subscribe to DNS East and/or West even if my area now has local HD's on DirecTV?

 

[Mr Tony]

Does this new law now enable me to subscribe to DNS East and/or West even if my area now has local HD's on DirecTV?

no

 

[JohnH]

No. You cannot get distant hd nets if your local hd nets are available.

 

[shkarter1985]

No. You cannot get distant hd nets if your local hd nets are available.

That means we have NO choice but to get LiL service, I think it's a SHVERA thing. Why does this law exist?

 

[JohnH]

It was time to extend SHVERA. So that is what STELA does along with a making a path for DiSH to offer Significantly Viewed with some network fillins in markets that do not have all 4 networks and some other gimmiks. AAD can still do the distants thing if they don't feel the need to opt out.

 

[Mr Tony]

That means we have NO choice but to get LiL service,

correct which 98% of the people in the US want. They want their locals for local news.

. Why does this law exist?

**sigh** we've been down this road. If there was no SHVIA (the predecessor to SHVERA) there would be NO network TV options on satellite
not local networks
not "distant" network

nothing

So they created SHVIA which allowed sat companies to carry local into local (local markets).

Yeah I know your response is going to be "well I can read the NY times at my local newsstand" or something of the nature. As I posted above I bet you 98% of the people in the US (probably more) want their LOCALS...
If you read through some of the posts here folks who have AAD because their locals arent available (usually due to not having the full market of locals) are excited to drop them because Dish will be able to import a neighboring local.

The local affiliates pay a lot money to be an affiliate of that network....and they want your eyeballs to see their station. Do some locals suck? YES
I have access to 2 CBS stations and 2 Fox stations OTA..Minneapolis where both CBS & Fox are owned by the network and Mankato (75 miles away) where its CBS and Fox is a subchannel
Mankato CBS only shows HD for prime time and the national news. The syndicated shows like Ellen, TPIR, Oprah & Dr Phil are not in HD on there but are in Minneapolis
Mankato Fox is 480i widescreen for Fox network programming..the rest has black bars

yet I see tons of Directv dishes in Mankato (Dish does not have locals there yet)...hmm wonder why? Because they can see LOCAL news

 

[cfb]

Sadly, you could practically record one news show and just replay it every night and it'd be close enough.

"Doofus politicians [take money/cant fix something/broke something/arent responding to something]"

"Big accident on the highway"

"Celebrity [gets drunk/is pregnant/said something funny or stupid/is dating other celebrity]"

"Record [snowfall/rain/hot weather/frogs falling from the sky]"

Followed by a random collection of other alarming stuff that you cant do anything about.

I just wish I could get someone elses locals so I didnt have to watch the Raiders and 49ers every sunday. Well...maybe not Detroit or St Louis locals.

 

[n4uaj]

I remember when i was on C Band and had PT24 for a while then had to lose it because they started requiring waivers..the local station denied me citing that I wouldn't see their news or local commercials..I wrote back that number 1 their news shows were sorry to begin with..i can read the paper..and as for commercials the ones I saw on the Nashville TN channel for Ford Chevy ect. were all the same except instead of saying see your Carolina Ford Dealer they said Tennesee....stoopid I thought and I still dont watch local news cause all they do is teasers such as "bus crash injures students" and it turns out to be an out of state story anyway. (end of rant)

 

[televisionarchives]

Think about it. If this law was applied to Newspapers and radio you wouldn't be able to read newspapers from other parts of the country online. You wouldn't be able to listen to radio from other parts of the world. Only the local Television networks can do this.

 

[Jimbo]

SO, What does this bill DO for us the consumer ?
Anything, or is it a bill that helps the other end of the spectrum ?

 

[Mr Tony]

SO, What does this bill DO for us the consumer ?
Anything, or is it a bill that helps the other end of the spectrum ?

From what I've read it mainly helps Dish subs who live in markets that don't have the full 4 networks. It will allow Dish to import locals from a neighboring market

Directv already can do this

Also it has to do with HD locals too that all markets have to be up within 3 years