Local ABC Channel

bubba gump

SatelliteGuys Family
Original poster
Jul 25, 2007
38
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DN has ignored numerous calls as to why they have'nt launched my local ABC which is WOAYTV 50 in the Beckley-Bluefield- Oak Hill DMA. All is about money because the last call to ABC it is about one penny as to why they won't launch. Charlie can stick his system and programing where the sun don't shine and Directv here I come. Very, Very dissatisfied with DN.
 
dish has a history of not negotiating well with locals
i was told when i signed up they were coming soon
4 years later there was an event scheduled to announce the luanch
well the event never happened. they still dont have them
but direct does
one of the many reasons i switched
 
Well I have been a Dish customer since 1998. If you had been here that long you would remember no local channels. You would remember the 2003 Dish effort to merge with Direct TV because GM (Hughes Electronics)was running DTV into the ground. The US government blocked that. Dish wanted access to Direct TV's locals and adding the Direct TV customers would greatly enhance Dish's ability to negotiate with all the channel providers. Cable TV hated that idea and lobbyist were out in force. Go check out archived news reports and you will see the power cable companies have.

So Dish put up its own birds and built local access from scratch. I too waited a long time. Years actually. Finally came.
Dish started with the largest markets and worked downward. Is your market considered small?
From what I understand there is no set price for acquiring local access. And it is not a package. Each has its own ideas of what it thinks its worth. So maybe the local station is asking an unreasonable price. Maybe all the technical requirements are not worked out from the local station's end. OP, did you contact your local ABC affiliate and ask them what the holdup is? Also doesn't Dish also have to get rebroadcast rights from ABC,CBS,NBC,etc?

So if you really want to know what is going on you really need to dig deeper. The mantra of its Dish's fault for everything is kinda weak. No I don't work for Dish. No I am not saying everything Dish does is good, I have many complaints in the last couple of years. But I realistically don't expect Dish to jump through hoops for me an individual subscriber.

Lastly, since I became a Dish customer Charlie has lived up to what he told his customers back then. He wanted to make Dish the best value for your money and he was not going to just pay station providers whatever they wanted and pass the cost on to us the subscribers. He negotiated the best deal he could and year after year made minimal increases to a subscribers bill. That is something cable could not do nor will they ever do.
 
Well I have been a Dish customer since 1998. If you had been here that long you would remember no local channels. You would remember the 2003 Dish effort to merge with Direct TV because GM (Hughes Electronics)was running DTV into the ground. The US government blocked that. Dish wanted access to Direct TV's locals and adding the Direct TV customers would greatly enhance Dish's ability to negotiate with all the channel providers. Cable TV hated that idea and lobbyist were out in force. Go check out archived news reports and you will see the power cable companies have.

So Dish put up its own birds and built local access from scratch. I too waited a long time. Years actually. Finally came.
Dish started with the largest markets and worked downward. Is your market considered small?
From what I understand there is no set price for acquiring local access. And it is not a package. Each has its own ideas of what it thinks its worth. So maybe the local station is asking an unreasonable price. Maybe all the technical requirements are not worked out from the local station's end. OP, did you contact your local ABC affiliate and ask them what the holdup is? Also doesn't Dish also have to get rebroadcast rights from ABC,CBS,NBC,etc?

So if you really want to know what is going on you really need to dig deeper. The mantra of its Dish's fault for everything is kinda weak. No I don't work for Dish. No I am not saying everything Dish does is good, I have many complaints in the last couple of years. But I realistically don't expect Dish to jump through hoops for me an individual subscriber.

Lastly, since I became a Dish customer Charlie has lived up to what he told his customers back then. He wanted to make Dish the best value for your money and he was not going to just pay station providers whatever they wanted and pass the cost on to us the subscribers. He negotiated the best deal he could and year after year made minimal increases to a subscribers bill. That is something cable could not do nor will they ever do.

i did this research in my area. i doubted my local station was telling the truth. then they popped up on direct.
minimal increase in subs? oh but all the high fees are not an issue? $17 for 1 box?
best value? why is my direct bill the same price? with an extra box?
 
Equipment fees are part of what I am referring to as my recent complaints. Minimal increase of subs is what I am referring to as to what you are paying for whatever package you have. Having been here as long as I have you can't tell me your package price increases have been huge. I came out of a cable system who jacked prices it seemed like every couple of months. And that was with them adding nothing. So I plunked down $750 and bought a Dish system.

And again I agree with the equipment leasing issues. I am running 3 boxes here, had 4, want 4 but they will not let me have 4 now being I went totally HD(had to,got their letter about the need to change equipment).

Hopefully a Dish rep can chime in as to the reason why your local ABC is not available. If you are getting all the other locals it would seem to me a dispute between the ABC local and Dish. I am assuming you are getting all the other locals? If you are, then why could the other locals come to terms with Dish and they cannot?
 
I'm getting frustrated and impatient too. I live in Princeton, WV and want to watch the NBA playoffs in HD. Is there any other solution? If they make distants available again, would we qualify to receive ABC out of NY?
 
I'm getting frustrated and impatient too. I live in Princeton, WV and want to watch the NBA playoffs in HD. Is there any other solution? If they make distants available again, would we qualify to receive ABC out of NY?

nope. The fact that your locals are available makes it so you cant get distants....even if Dish and a local is having a petty dispute
 
How far are you from the CBS and NBC stations, you can add OTA stations and run them thru your receiver and get excellent Picture.
Here is a site that will show you where the stations are and what degree to aim your UHF antenna.

Choosing the Best TV Antenna for Princeton, West Virginia


CBS at 38 degrees 35 miles should have good reception.

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WVNS-TV (CBS/FOX/MyN)
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Distance: 35 miles @38°
Channel 8(VHF)




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WVVA (NBC/RTV/CW)
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Distance: 9 miles @210°
Channel 46(UHF)
 
How far are you from the CBS and NBC stations, you can add OTA stations and run them thru your receiver and get excellent Picture.

The area the OP is talking about is awful for OTA TV. The allotment of TV stations was bungled by politicians in the 50s and 60s, spread out among multiple locations. Combined with the terrain, there really is no place, at least no place very many people can live, where more than one TV station can be received. The entire region was wired for cable, then called CATV, long before most anybody ever heard of it in the rest of America, and the BUD was a godsend to those people.

The situation on the ground is that almost literally everybody has cable or a dish. Just have to or watch one channel. WOAY ended up far far far too far to the north of the market's natural center, trying to rimshot Charleston (which never worked and which the station gave up trying decades ago). It is among the most amateurish and poorly run stations in the country. It still signs off at night, because it will not pay for automation that became standard in the early 80s. Its news staff is part time, working as DJs or in retail in the day time.

As the area has declined (lack of economic opportunity has led it to shed 45% of its population in just 30 years) the station (which is locally owned, not a part of a chain, which is a major part of its problems) has a simple business plan. Do the minimum possible and hold up every cable and DBS provider for as much retrans as it can (the local ad market is laughable) and yeild enough profit to support the family that owns it.

Its dispute with DISH (and sadly Frontier is the local phone company, the only major phone company that bundles with DISH rather than DirecTV) is a part of that greedy and backward business plan.
 

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