Locals changed with no explanation

[Claude Greiner]

I got a commercial property called the Bush Kill inn in the Poconos mountains in Pennsylvania.

Zip code is 18324

Up until Saturday the property was getting locals from Scranton PA DMA. Without notice the locals where switched to the New York DMA.

Since this is a Digital headend over coax system, all the locals went down in the entire hotel until I reset things to get New York.

The customer wants Scranton locals.

I call Directv and they can’t explain what happened or even acknowledged the customer ever got Scranton locals. Just keep on insisting they got New York all along, which I’m 100% sure they where getting Scranton.

The customer is in the middle of 2 DMA’s in their zip code. When you put in the zip code it asks for Pike county or Monroe county which determines the locals.

I have no idea why this happened, or how to get the old locals back.

Talking to Directv is like talking to a brick wall

 

[dishrich]

It's could be due to this:
Top 10 Movement In New Nielsen DMA Ranks | TVNewsCheck.com

Since this property is in the middle of 2 DMA's, my guess is that the Nielsen gods decided that the DMA this outskirt area was in (it's actually called the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton DMA) lost TV subs to the NY DMA...& D* changed them accordingly; probably thru some audit. But I thought this was NOT done to existing subs & they were left alone unless they moved their service; it would be applied only to new subs in this area going forward.

It could also be that another audit determined their physical address was in the wrong county in D*'s subscriber system & changed the locals accordingly.

Either way...have no idea how to fix - good luck getting the brainboxes at AT&T to put it back...

 

[Claude Greiner]

I was on the phone an hour.

Atleast the engineer at the hotel understands what’s going on and said it’s ok as long as they have the networks in some form, even though Scranton is preferred.

 

[Juan]

Is this in Pike county?

 

[lefatman]

Wish they would make the change for the Frederick MD area. Would much prefer Baltimore to DC locals. Still upset that they will not allow frequently shared channels as they are allowed to do by the FCC. The fact that Baltimore channels are not view able without a tower antenna makes it all the worse.

 

[goaliebob99]

Whatever happened to significantly viewed locals? I thought if you were in both DMA's you could get both.

 

[dishrich]

I thought if you were in both DMA's you could get both.

First, NOBODY is in multiple (two) DMA's; you are ONLY in 1 DMA, period.

SV locals are for people that are on the outskirts of their assigned DMA, but basically "next door" to another one & "qualify" for some/all of those adjacent local channels. BUT, that does NOT mean your particular provider has to actually offer them to you; only that they ARE allowed to, if they so choose. And D* (nor E*) - except for a few particular exceptions - seem to want to do this...probably because it's too much trouble to have to figure out & then put into their database, who actually qualifies for any SV locals.

And actually, many cable systems are starting to remove SV locals from their systems...mostly due to the local networks in their actual DMA's forcing systems to remove any secondary local nets, in order for the system to get retrans consent...so they do not have to compete with another local station/DMA for eyeballs. It's happened quite a bit here in downstate IL lately...NOT saying it's right, just telling you what's happening...

 

[Tampa8]

First, NOBODY is in multiple (two) DMA's; you are ONLY in 1 DMA, period.

SV locals are for people that are on the outskirts of their assigned DMA, but basically "next door" to another one & "qualify" for some/all of those adjacent local channels. BUT, that does NOT mean your particular provider has to actually offer them to you; only that they ARE allowed to, if they so choose. And D* (nor E*) - except for a few particular exceptions - seem to want to do this...probably because it's too much trouble to have to figure out & then put into their database, who actually qualifies for any SV locals.

And actually, many cable systems are starting to remove SV locals from their systems...mostly due to the local networks in their actual DMA's forcing systems to remove any secondary local nets, in order for the system to get retrans consent...so they do not have to compete with another local station/DMA for eyeballs. It's happened quite a bit here in downstate IL lately...NOT saying it's right, just telling you what's happening...

In the case of the SV I have in Tampa - they actively seeked to be included by DISH and then were, first in SD and now in HD.

 

[dishrich]

In the case of the SV I have in Tampa - they actively seeked to be included by DISH and then were, first in SD and now in HD.

Which SV channels are you getting in Tampa? If you're talking about WWSB, while it may be considered SV in your particular (physical) location, it's still considered part of the entire Tampa/St.Petersburg (& Sarasota) DMA by Nielsen.

It's really no different than what we have here in my Springfield/Decatur/Champaign DMA; we have (2) FOX full power & (2) ABC full power stations, but each only covers about 1/2 the entire DMA.
Both E* & D* carry only the Springfield based ABC station, which now are the same, exact signal that is served out of the Springfield studio.

While D* carries only the Springfield based FOX station, E* now carries both. (E* used to carry only the Champaign ABC station, but when the local station switched their local Champaign news from the ABC to the FOX station last year, E* later replaced the Champaign ABC station with the FOX Champaign station)
U-verse in both Springfield, Decatur & Champaign carries ALL 4 stations in HD across their entire servicing area.

Another (better) example would be in the Grand Rapids/Kalamazoo/Battle Creek, MI DMA; both ABC affiliates that serve different physical regions of the entire DMA, are both on D* & E*.

 

[lefatman]

In Frederick County MD, you can be on one side of the road and get Baltimore and on the other side and get DC. To me that is ridiculous. I have lived here for 32 years and the cable company has always offered both. It would not cost DTV one cent to hit the button and give both. Or better yet, give you the option of which you wanted.

 

[raoul5788]

In Frederick County MD, you can be on one side of the road and get Baltimore and on the other side and get DC. To me that is ridiculous. I have lived here for 32 years and the cable company has always offered both. It would not cost DTV one cent to hit the button and give both. Or better yet, give you the option of which you wanted.

Two points: 1. The coverage line has to be drawn somewhere. It does suck when you are near it. 2. Depending upon the physical size of the dma, some hd locals could have sketchy signal strength at the far side of a neighboring dma that could carry it in sv. Directv doesn't want calls regarding spotty reception.

 

[lefatman]

Two points: 1. The coverage line has to be drawn somewhere. It does suck when you are near it. 2. Depending upon the physical size of the dma, some hd locals could have sketchy signal strength at the far side of a neighboring dma that could carry it in sv. Directv doesn't want calls regarding spotty reception.

I don't think spotty reception would be a problem. The only thing I will say in behalf of DTV is that they probably could not get as much from the DC channels if they were both available, but I think they would make up for it in charges to the Baltimore stations. Seems very unfair that they have different rules for different parts of the country. I have stated many times that the only reason I keep them is the sports package. More options are becoming available to cord cutters and as soon as one becomes available that gives me what I want I'll be gone. Sunday Ticket is the biggest reason I am still here. Without it, 2 Ravens games would not hve been available in Frederick and we are in what the NFL has designated as a Raven marketing area.

 

[texasbrit]

Spotty reception is potentially a big issue, particularly in HD. Someone on the eastern edge of a zip/county might get great signals from a station in the adjacent DMA, but someone on the western edge might be way out of the spotbeams, and if that's the case that station can't be delivered.

 

[Radioguy41]

First, NOBODY is in multiple (two) DMA's; you are ONLY in 1 DMA, period.

Yeah, I've seen this arguement on here before. It was wrong then and it's wrong now. Yes, you can be defined in more than one DMA. In my location (also the Poconos) I'm in the overlap of 3, SWB, NY, and Phila. I posted up the data last time and am not going to do it again but please, stop saying you can only be in one DMA, it's not true.

 

[raoul5788]

Yeah, I've seen this arguement on here before. It was wrong then and it's wrong now. Yes, you can be defined in more than one DMA. In my location (also the Poconos) I'm in the overlap of 3, SWB, NY, and Phila. I posted up the data last time and am not going to do it again but please, stop saying you can only be in one DMA, it's not true.

An address can originally show in more than one dma, but when you add in the correct county in the online lookup, it is only in one. My town is on the border of two counties and some of the addresses were delivered by the adjacent town's post office from the other county giving them a different zip code. In that situation one town can seem to be in two dmas, but it isn't really.

 

[dishrich]

I posted up the data last time and am not going to do it again but please, stop saying you can only be in one DMA, it's not true.

Good, because you are simply 200% WRONG, as raoul just clearly explained above...

 

[Claude Greiner]

They should allow you to buy the locals in your DMA, and once you have done that you can buy whatever locals you want.

The whole thing is stupid

 

[Juan]

They should allow you to buy the locals in your DMA, and once you have done that you can buy whatever locals you want.

The whole thing is stupid

Once local stations disappear..it will all be irrelevant

 

[texasbrit]

They should allow you to buy the locals in your DMA, and once you have done that you can buy whatever locals you want.

The whole thing is stupid

They can't do that. Locals are on spotbeams and the chances are there are no others that cover your area.

 

[Jimbo]

Once local stations disappear..it will all be irrelevant

Well worry about that years from now when its a possibility.