This was in the paper today
DirecTV switches North Albany customers to Eugene
By Hasso Hering, Albany Democrat-Herald | Posted: Tuesday, November 10, 2009 12:55 pm
"Customers of DirecTV in North Albany will lose their access to Portland broadcast stations on Nov. 18. They’ll be switched to Eugene stations instead, and at least two don’t look forward to the change.
The company says it has no choice.
Under a 2004 federal law governing satellite television services, companies must carry the local stations within a “designated market area,” DirecTV spokesman Robert G. Mercer says.
The boundaries of designated market areas or DMAs are determined based on surveys by the Nielsen ratings company, Mercer explained Monday in an interview from Los Angeles.
He said the latest Nielsen report puts the Benton County part of the 97321 ZIP code in the Eugene DMA, he said. Also affected is the Benton portion of the 97361 ZIP code, which is north of Camp Adair Road and includes the Coffin Butte area.
The company would not say how many customers are affected.
Customers in the Linn County portion of the 97321 ZIP code remain in the Portland DMA and are not affected.
Delfina Herrera Hoxie, a North Albany resident, objected to the switch in a letter to the Democrat-Herald because DirecTV did not plan to carry the Eugene stations in high definition.
“The government and you hurried us to upgrade to digital TV and now we are to go without,” Hoxie wrote in an e-mail to the company she shared with the paper. “We spent thousands of dollars upgrading our equipment. I think it is time for DirecTV to do the same immediately.”
Mercer said the company had no plans at present to offer the Eugene stations in high definition.
Unlike Hoxie, who received a mailing on the change from DirecTV, Bill Young, also of North Albany, heard about the switch first from Hoxie’s letter in the paper on Oct. 22.
Young said he was concerned mostly with losing access to the news on Portland stations. He was thinking of changing providers but had signed a two-year contract.
Posted in Local, Local on Tuesday, November 10, 2009 12:55 pm"
DirecTV switches North Albany customers to Eugene
By Hasso Hering, Albany Democrat-Herald | Posted: Tuesday, November 10, 2009 12:55 pm
"Customers of DirecTV in North Albany will lose their access to Portland broadcast stations on Nov. 18. They’ll be switched to Eugene stations instead, and at least two don’t look forward to the change.
The company says it has no choice.
Under a 2004 federal law governing satellite television services, companies must carry the local stations within a “designated market area,” DirecTV spokesman Robert G. Mercer says.
The boundaries of designated market areas or DMAs are determined based on surveys by the Nielsen ratings company, Mercer explained Monday in an interview from Los Angeles.
He said the latest Nielsen report puts the Benton County part of the 97321 ZIP code in the Eugene DMA, he said. Also affected is the Benton portion of the 97361 ZIP code, which is north of Camp Adair Road and includes the Coffin Butte area.
The company would not say how many customers are affected.
Customers in the Linn County portion of the 97321 ZIP code remain in the Portland DMA and are not affected.
Delfina Herrera Hoxie, a North Albany resident, objected to the switch in a letter to the Democrat-Herald because DirecTV did not plan to carry the Eugene stations in high definition.
“The government and you hurried us to upgrade to digital TV and now we are to go without,” Hoxie wrote in an e-mail to the company she shared with the paper. “We spent thousands of dollars upgrading our equipment. I think it is time for DirecTV to do the same immediately.”
Mercer said the company had no plans at present to offer the Eugene stations in high definition.
Unlike Hoxie, who received a mailing on the change from DirecTV, Bill Young, also of North Albany, heard about the switch first from Hoxie’s letter in the paper on Oct. 22.
Young said he was concerned mostly with losing access to the news on Portland stations. He was thinking of changing providers but had signed a two-year contract.
Posted in Local, Local on Tuesday, November 10, 2009 12:55 pm"
