I've currently got DNS and locals ... should I request a formal waiver?

[roadrhino]

... Or would that hose me?

The situation: I'm in a white area where last year when I called to add locals the CSR asked whether I wanted DNS as well. I signed up for both and have happily been receiving both for some time now.

I've not yet received any letter from Dish stating I need to choose but I am a bit worried that I will get such a letter. (By the way, if their letters have been telling people they need to respond by early April or lose DNS, shouldn't they all be out by now, about a month in advance.) My understanding is that white zone people who currently have both aren't going to be forced to choose *if* they have a formal waiver on file.

What I am wondering is ... if I were to formally request a waiver, would that affect my chance of being able to keep both locals and DNS? If it would affect my chance of keeping my desired dbs setup, would it INCREASE or DECREASE my chance of keeping both?

Thoughts?

It does seem like a lot of worry about something as silly as TV, but it's my TV, dammit and I want it to be the way I want it. The real question is whether there is a strategy that will increase my chances.

Roadrhino

 

[navy8ball]

its a catch 22. if you do decide i highly recommend going to dish website and request waiver from the dns box where the local info is.

 

[tracyt]

"The situation: I'm in a white area where last year when I called to add locals the CSR asked whether I wanted DNS as well. I signed up for both and have happily been receiving both for some time now. "

How do you find out if you are in "white area" or any other area????

 

[roadrhino]

My understanding (and there are some here who have far more than I) is that white areas:

• were defined by SHVA and are areas which are no where close to receiving any TV signal over the airwaves at all. Of course such areas should receive distant network service (DNS).
• Since SHVIA where the entirety of the US was carved up into DMAs. DMAs:
  • are regions defined by AC Nielson which attempt to describe, for the purpose of selling advertisements, which urban area is closest (in some sense ... geographically and culturally come to mind) to any given location.
  • tend to follow county boundaries ... this is considerably different than cable TV where some regions are served by network stations dramatically different from the nearest urban area. As an example, the urban areas South Lake Tahoe, CA are closest to (in order) are Reno, Sacramento, Fresno then the SF Bay area. If I remember correctly, Cable TV in that region has SF Bay area stations.
  SHVIA required satellite service to provide "local into local" network service to anyone in a DMA where the satellite service carries local networks. In other words, if one lives anywhere in the San Francisco/Oakland/San Jose DMA, one is eligible to receive the networks from this region once this region has locals via satellite. SHVIA didn't, however, change the requirement for distant network service. In other words, if someone lives within a DMA (and by definition, we all live in one) but so far into the outskirts of this DMA that they cannot receive any signal over the air, they are eligible to receive both local networks and distant networks.
• have been all but eliminated by SHVERA because now anyone who had been in such an area is no longer eligible to sign up for distant network service as well as local service.
• however, not all people in such areas have yet received the letter telling them they need to choose locals or distant network service (DNS).

If someone with greater knowledge (Iceberg and TNGTony come to mind) could correct any misinformation in this post, I would be greatly appreciative!

Roadrhino

 

[waltinvt]

The FCC has a fact sheet which explains some of this at :

http://www.fcc.gov/mb/shva/shviafac.html

Also, some on the AVS forum have posted responses they've received from the FCC saying, among other things:

"...whether a satellite company offers local TV stations in the area and whether a subscriber purchases the local channels is not relevant to the subscribers eligibility to receive distant HD programming. "

For some reason it seems "D" has been disenfranchising a lot of customers as far as qualifying for the HD DNS goes.

The whole "if DBS offers your LILs, you can't get the HD DNS" is a bunch of horse-crap.

It's a mystery to me why "D" is going out of their way to NOT give people the HD DNS and "E" isn't even trying to offer them ? Makes no logical sense to me at all unless there's something going on behind the scenes.

 

[SimpleSimon]

It's a mystery to me why "D" is going out of their way to NOT give people the HD DNS and "E" isn't even trying to offer them ? Makes no logical sense to me at all unless there's something going on behind the scenes.

Maybe they're just scared of the NAB (FCC) beating on them.

I say we need to beat the NAB into total oblivion, and let local affiliates stand or fall on their own merits of content. That will mean a big shakeout that leaves one or two locals per market - non-affiliated. With luck, it might go so far as to kill OTA TV entirely, thereby freeing up huge amounts of bandwidth for better uses.

 

[BobaBird]

Roadrhino, you've got it pretty close. I don't know when DMAs began, but it was long before SHVIA. SHVIA doesn't so much require LIL to the entire geographic area of a DMA (if that local is carried, of course) as it restricts the customer to receiving only that DMA they physically live in unless, as you say, they are in a white zone.

SimpleSimon, where do we sign up?

 

[roadrhino]

Roadrhino, you've got it pretty close. I don't know when DMAs began, but it was long before SHVIA. SHVIA doesn't so much require LIL to the entire geographic area of a DMA (if that local is carried, of course) as it restricts the customer to receiving only that DMA they physically live in unless, as you say, they are in a white zone.

Yes ... I did not mean to imply that SHVIA defined or created DMAs ... just that SHVIA required satellite companies to provide locals into locals according the the DMA regions.

Roadrhino

ps - I was about to write a long diatribe about the strangnesses of SHVIA and SHVERA and complaints about why, even if I am willing to pay a premium for it, I am not allowed to get my programming from any city I choose. (Without resorting to hacking, of course. I do have to say that it would be nice to be able to get local newscasts from places I used to live, just for fun.)