The Next Wave of Directv HD Locals List

[herdfan]

Birmingham also has no pro teams either, this seems like a very odd bump up. If they were going to bump up much lower DMAs you would think they would have a good reason so I await to hear it.

Ding, Ding, Ding! We have a winner. Birmingham is a FOX O&O.

http://www.newscorp.com/management/foxtvstations.html

Edit: Upon further review of the list, it looks like all FOX O&O's through Birmingham are getting lit up. Nothing like taking care of your own.

 

[herdfan]

Seattle, Minneapolis, Miami, Sacramento, Pittsburgh, Baltimore, San Diego, Charlotte, Hartford, Nashville, West Palm Beach & Birmingham.Phoenix, Cleveland, Denver, Orlando, St. Louis, Indianapolis, Raleigh - Durham, Kansas City, Columbus (OH), Milwaukee, Salt Lake City & Fresno.

RED = Mountain & Pacific
BLUE = Eastern & Central
What ever happened to the notion of the Mountain and Pacific DMA's being done first so that D* could remove the LA MPEG-2 feeds. These markets are all over the place.

 

[David Ortiz]

Fresno's ABC station is O&O as well, which is why the 56th largest DMA is on the top 36 list. In fact all of the big four O&O stations in the Mountain and Pacific time zones will be up on the Spaceway sat once these additional 24 markets are live.

 

[Tonedeaf]

RED = Mountain & Pacific
BLUE = Eastern & Central
What ever happened to the notion of the Mountain and Pacific DMA's being done first so that D* could remove the LA MPEG-2 feeds. These markets are all over the place.

I read that also, but thought nothing of it. I just couldn't believe they would do something regional like that.

 

[Digital Dude]

Just theorizing but one reason Columbus could be bumped up is that the local ABC and Fox are owned by Sinclair and not available in HD on 2 of 3 cable companies. There are large swaths of housing developments that went up before the lethargic cable co's were even in the ground. You can drive around many neighborhoods that have about 95% of households with dbs dishes on them, and 90% of those are DirecTV.

If you have significant market penetration AND local HD advantage over Dish and cable isn't that reason enough to move a DMA like Columbus up the ladder?

 

[herdfan]

Fresno's ABC station is O&O as well, which is why the 56th largest DMA is on the top 36 list. In fact all of the big four O&O stations in the Mountain and Pacific time zones will be up on the Spaceway sat once these additional 24 markets are live.

I didn't know about Fresno, but I guess that does mean that after May the LA -2 feeds can be shut off as all western O&O's will be covered.

I wonder why they are waiting 3-4 months. Why not light up 6 markets a month starting now?

 

[herdfan]

Ok, so who in the TOP 36 markets get !@#$ed so that Birmingham and Fresno can get lit up.

Based on the 2005 DMA rankings, these cities are left wanting:

#23 Portland, OR
#34 Cincinnati, OH
#35 Greenville, SC

While these cities jump to the front of the line:

#38 WPB, FL
#40 Birmingham, AL
#56 Fresno, CA

 

[charper1]

Ok, so who in the TOP 36 markets get !@#$ed so that Birmingham and Fresno can get lit up.
Based on the 2005 DMA rankings, these cities are left wanting:
#23 Portland, OR
#34 Cincinnati, OH
#35 Greenville, SC
While these cities jump to the front of the line:
#38 WPB, FL
#40 Birmingham, AL
#56 Fresno, CA

Any major sports market gets screwed; some that come to mind are Phoenix, Seattle, Minneapolis, Miami, Denver; heck #13 - #37 are getting screwed

13 Seattle-Tacoma
14 Phoenix (Prescott)
15 Minneapolis-St. Paul
16 Cleveland-Akron (Canton)
17 Miami-Ft. Lauderdale
18 Denver
19 Sacramnto-Stkton-Modesto
20 Orlando-Daytona Bch-Melbrn
21 St. Louis
22 Pittsburgh
23 Portland, OR
24 Baltimore
25 Indianapolis
26 San Diego
27 Charlotte
28 Hartford & New Haven
29 Raleigh-Durham (Fayetvlle)
30 Nashville
31 Kansas City
32 Columbus, OH
33 Milwaukee
34 Cincinnati
35 Greenvll-Spart-Ashevll-And
36 Salt Lake City
37 San Antonio
38 West Palm Beach-Ft. Pierce
39 Grand Rapids-Kalmzoo-B.Crk
40 Birmingham (Ann, Tusc)
41 Harrisburg-Lncstr-Leb-York
42 Norfolk-Portsmth-Newpt Nws
43 New Orleans
44 Memphis
45 Oklahoma City
46 Albuquerque-Santa Fe
47 Greensboro-H.Point-W.Salem
48 Las Vegas
49 Buffalo
50 Louisville
51 Providence-New Bedford
52 Jacksonville
53 Austin
54 Wilkes Barre-Scranton
55 Albany-Schenectady-Troy
56 Fresno-Visalia
57 Little Rock-Pine Bluff
58 Knoxville
59 Dayton
60 Richmond-Petersburg
61 Tulsa
62 Mobile-Pensacola (Ft Walt)
63 Lexington
64 Charleston-Huntington
65 Flint-Saginaw-Bay City
66 Ft. Myers-Naples
67 Wichita-Hutchinson Plus
68 Roanoke-Lynchburg
69 Green Bay-Appleton Lowest ranked with pro sports

 

[herdfan]

Any major sports market gets screwed; some that come to mind are Phoenix, Seattle, Minneapolis, Miami, Denver; heck #13 - #37 are getting screwed

Not following the logic here. How are major sports markets getting screwed? I could possibly see if they were getting O&O feeds of sporting events plus the local feed. But that shouldn't cover all top 37 markets or does it?

 

[charper1]

Skipping down to much lower ranks that don't even have a pro sports need is silly. Being lesser ranks surely means less viewers so thus why go lower first?

 

[Digital Dude]

Skipping down to much lower ranks that don't even have a pro sports need is silly. Being lesser ranks surely means less viewers so thus why go lower first?

I disagree. DirecTV may have had sd locals in a lower market long before in a larger market. If they have sh!tty penetration in a larger market versus large penetration in a smaller market= more subs in smaller market then why throw money at a market with fewer subs?

 

[charper1]

If you have ALL the residents in Birmingham that is only 233,149 (2004) -4% from the 2000 census. LOL yet they claim they have 1,052,238 metro, that must be all surrounding towns within 3 hours, yet still down nearly 4%.

If you only have 15% of the Phoenix area, that is 568,878 (2004) growing at 37%+ over the last 10y. That tiny 15% of the Phoenix area is almost 2.5x the entire city of Birmingham. It is the fastest growing metro city in America.

It makes no sense. There is much more opportunity in the Phoenix market. Market penetration seems to be a fancy way to TWIST stats. At some point the overwhelming size of some areas (and growing) matters. It is mostly BUNK to skip around in the DMA list especially to areas without major sports, aka some of the most prime HD offerings.

Birmingham is also near total flatness and very tiny land area, thus easy HD reception. Phoenix on the other hand, like Los Angeles and San Francisco and have very large land areas with compromised topography; thus uneasy HD reception and the need, the begging of users to serve them.

All three of these areas dwarf Birmingham and SHOULD be ahead of them by ANY stats you use.

 

[fkostyn]

You also have to consider some of the outlying towns - Buckeye, Maricopa, Queen Creen, Gold Canyon, and parts of Casa Grande - a lot of these are serviced by small cable company's with NO HD offerings at all.

 

[herdfan]

All three of these areas dwarf Birmingham and SHOULD be ahead of them by ANY stats you use.

Except for the one that counts the most: Birmingham is a FOX O&O. D* is owned by FOX. They are taking care of their own first.

As for Fresno at #56, since it appears to be an ABC O&O, they need to be able to serve that market so that they can turn off the LA HD DNS in time for NFL ST in the fall as they are going to have all the CBS games in HD as well instead of the three we had the past 2 years.

 

[lou_do]

I am in no hurry to convert to MPG4. All that will happen is I will loose all the great features of my HTL-HD, that the H20 doesn't have, and get 4 of the 29 digital channels I already get OTA.

 

[tibber]

Another reason was winter weather closed out many northern DMAs. I'm sad to see it won't be until April and May they start up again.

Cheers,
Tom

 

[uncrules]

Except for the one that counts the most: Birmingham is a FOX O&O. D* is owned by FOX. They are taking care of their own first.
As for Fresno at #56, since it appears to be an ABC O&O, they need to be able to serve that market so that they can turn off the LA HD DNS in time for NFL ST in the fall as they are going to have all the CBS games in HD as well instead of the three we had the past 2 years.

Well, the Greensboro area is #47 on the dma list and the Fox station in this area is also O&O but Greensboro didn't get bumped up.

The Greensboro area also has Sinclair owned ABC and UPN stations so Time Warner in this area doesn't carry the HD channels. With the upcoming Super Bowl on ABC there have been a couple of articles in the local papers talking about the Sinclair/TWC impasse in regards to HD carriage. In these articles Sinclair is stating the Greensboro HD channel should be on Directv by June/July.

 

[Fgsilva]

29??? Where do you live? I'm moving to your neighbourhood!! :

I am in no hurry to convert to MPG4. All that will happen is I will loose all the great features of my HTL-HD, that the H20 doesn't have, and get 4 of the 29 digital channels I already get OTA.

 

[slacker9876]

reliable source, a D* worker

I called to cancel D* today and was also told May for the Denver DMA. I called retention to cancel and the guy looked to see when we were due. I'll be back,once the MPEG4 & Lease dust settle. It did not favor well that my HR10-250 died and Robert never respond to my e-mail though.

Way to go D* my future is with you but I amin the present for now

 

[lou_do]

29??? Where do you live? I'm moving to your neighbourhood!! :

Orlando/Daytona/Melbourne Market. Almost all of our locals have converted over to digital, and many have multiple channels.