[mythtv-users] DISH Locals (was Re: Dish gotchas?)

Steven Adeff adeffs.mythtv at gmail.com
Tue Apr 11 19:48:11 UTC 2006


On 4/11/06, Michael T. Dean <mtdean at thirdcontact.com> wrote:
> On 04/11/2006 02:46 PM, Steven Adeff wrote:
> > How do the local channels work with Dish? DirecTV has DirectKick (MLS)
> > and NFL Season Ticket, which my apt-mate and I are interested in. Dish
> > doesn't have this, but I've heard you can get local channels from the
> > major cities.
>
> Yep.
>
> >  Are you only able to get them from your local stations
> >
>
> Yep.
>
> > or would it be possible to get them from other major markets (L.A.,
> > NY, Chicago, etc)?
>
> Yep.
>
> "How can it be both ways--only locals, but also from other major
> markets?" you might ask.  Because we're in the US, of course.  ;)
>
> Because your local TV stations have spent their hard-earned money to buy
> into a network franchise, the government wants to protect their
> investment.  (After all, isn't that what the government is for? ;)
> Therefore, you can get "local" channels from anywhere in the
> US--provided you get written permission from your local affiliate (a
> "waiver").  (OK, I realize if this weren't the case, we wouldn't have
> much in the way of "free" local channels, but it's still annoying.)
> Note that you can only choose channels from Chicago, Denver, LA, NY, and
> Atlanta.
>
> Therefore, if you want ABC from New York and LA, but you live in the
> Orlando-Daytona Designated Market Area, you have to get written
> permission from WFTV channel 9 (the Orlando ABC affiliate) to receive
> them.  Same goes for NBC, CBS, and FOX.  Once you have the permission,
> you work out the payment details with DISH.
>
> Note that there are also "independent" channels in the "superstations"
> package that you can get even without express local channel approval in
> some market areas (the local channels have granted a general waiver).
> Basically, in this package you get some or all of:
>
> 232, KTLA, The WB in LA, CA
> 234, WPIX, WB11 in NY, NY
> 235, KWGN, WB2 in Denver, CO
> 236, WSBK, UPN38 in Boston, MA
> 238, WWOR, UPN9 in Secaucus, NJ
>
> (Technically, I'm not eligible for the UPN stations, but I'm
> grandfathered in because my local UPN station was added to DISH after I
> signed up for the superstations package. :)
>
> Getting channels from other time zones is a great way to increase the
> amount of prime-time you can record without buying additional receivers,
> but as someone who lives in the Easter timezone, even with the
> superstations package, it only helps for the WB (with Eastern (my local
> channel and WPIX), Mountain (Denver), and Pacific (LA)) since all the
> UPN stations are Eastern time zone.
>
> If it were up to me, I'd spread out my other channels to other timezones
> so I could spread out prime-time, but the FCC says it's not up to me.
>
> I have DISH locals and the superstations package (and nothing else).
> Because I'm not buying one of DISH's "regular" packages (i.e. the $20+
> "cable channels" packages), I have to pay a $5.99/mo customer service
> fee, plus $5.99/mo for the locals, plus $3/mo for all 5 superstations
> (discounted from $5.99 because I also get the locals) but it still works
> out pretty well for me (and I don't have to give any of my money to my
> local cable company--which is on my blacklist ;).
>
> See http://www.dishnetwork.com/content/faq/search/channels/ for more and
> find out what you can get at
> https://customersupport.dishnetwork.com/customernetqual/prepAddress.do .

interesting. I'm only interested in the locals since I can't get those
games in my area at all, so only getting certain ones doesn't really
help. DirecTV gets big points over Dish for this....


--
Steve


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