LA DirecTV Customers Can Now Get NY's WNBC, Experience NBC's Shows 3 Hours Early

[dfergie]

June 14, 2007

LA DirecTV Customers Can Now Get NY's WNBC, Experience NBC's Amazing Shows 3 Hours Early



DirecTV called LAist on the phone and left us a message. The recorded voice said that DirecTV had worked out a deal with WNBC in NY that allowed certain zipcodes in LA the ability to get the east coast channel for just $6 a month.
The benefit would be that we in LA would be able to get late night shows like Saturday Night Live and Conan O'Brien at 9:30pm instead of at 12:30am.
Because LAist is a little obsessive about television and we have pretty much every channel that the satellite provider delivers, we immediately called back last week when we heard the offer. Unfortunately no one at the 1800-DIRECTV knew what the fark we were talking about. They promised to call back the next day, but never did.
So we called back yesterday, the lady had no clue what we were referring to, rambled on about how there was a federal law against people getting local channels that weren't in their local markets (or nearby), and then tried to transfer us to a higher level of support, but sent us to New Customers. We were then transfered back down to the first level of customer service who then sent us to CIS(!) who saw the offer on the screen but couldn't figure out how to hook us up. 15 minutes later she had figured it out and we were watching Last Comic Standing three hours before we were supposed to.
So we identified ourselves as LAist and we asked if it was okay for us to share this special with our friends in LA who might also subscribe to DirecTV and wouldn't mind paying a little extra to get Conan at a reasonable hour on channel 382.
The woman said that it was fine to talk about it. She said that people should ask for the "NBC in NY only in LA" promotion. If your customer service rep seems to have no idea what you're talking about, ask to be transfered to CIS, or ask to be transfered to a supervisor.
The price of $5.99 a month does seem a little steep when compared to other premium packages where one can get 7 HBO channels or 9 Showtime channels for $12, but if you like Conan or local NY news, six bucks is a pittance. One less splurge at the valet a month.
There seems to be zero information about this special on the DirecTV site - maybe this does break some federal laws (whoops) - but the TiVo message board seemed to have a few members who experienced what we did when trying to sign up for the offer. So, who knows, maybe this is another in a long line of LAist scoops.
Whatevs. All we know is it's 2:25pm and we have Live at Five bustin on the second tuner with My Name is Earl ready to start recording at 5pm. Life is grand.
Lets hope this is the first step in the inevitable of all channels available for all Americans... at a price.

Source: LAist: LA DirecTV Customers Can Now Get NY's WNBC, Experience NBC's Amazing Shows 3 Hours Early

 

[dfergie]

Found this at another forum... Avs: DirecTV - WNBC available in LA, for a price. - AVS Forum

 

[moonman]

Federal law does not permit a TV provider to offer an 'out-of-market' network signal unless the local affiliate grants a waiver. Both the LA & NYC stations are
Network O&O, so a blanket waiver was not a problem I guess. Only S/D signals
are allowed, no H/D. D* has said that no other similar networks are being considered for this, at this time

 

[Buzzdar]

I think there is an exception where Both stations agree this can be done.

 

[dfergie]

I read an article somewhere that said if this was popular they might do it in other O&O markets... I think HD would be more popular though... I get all but ABC from both markets SD as I am grandfathered...

 

[smaug07]

I'd like to know what makes L.A. so special? I understand the whole three hours delay problem when it comes to live events, but how about the flip side of it? Those of us on the East coast often miss a good chunk of live sporting events that go late. Monday Night Football used to be a good example. When games started at 9PM EST, most of us football fans that had to work the next day, missed most, if not all, of the second half. And what about local baseball and basketball teams traveling west and playing 10PM or 10:30PM games? We'd miss those too. I know you can DVR these events, but it's just not the same as viewing the event live, and most of the time you know the outcome anyway. However, you won't catch the networks or sports leagues changing their start times just to accomodate the East coast viewer (which by the way would increase ratings, if you ask me). So, although I feel for the West coast people when it comes to the time shift principle, the problem actually goes both ways, and I don't feel as if making the New York feed of NBC available to L.A. is fair just to allow time shifting (which is routine in Canada). If the feed is to be offered in L.A., then it should be allowed in all other parts of the country. I'm not interested that both stations are O&O, this is just a double standard that the L.A. viewers are able to take advantage of. How come I can't get the L.A. feed here in the Boston area? Or how about the New York feeds, which I would love to have? Oh, that's right, only the CBS affiliate here is O&O, not the NBC, or ABC, and there is no time shifting advantage, so the hell with us here in the Northeast. I do envy those of you in L.A., and hope, for your sake, that it continues, and even possibly expands. I just would like to be offered elsewhere.

 

[Brewer4]

There is definately some danger for revenue streams with this offering. If I could get another market for all the major networks for lets say LA or Denver, etc. for 10 bucks I could easily get rid of my Sunday Ticket. Between the East Coast choices and West Coast, I don't think I would need every single NFL game. I watch mostly Eagles and Patriots and they are very well covered here.