# 14 Years-Still No Locals in HD - Just an update



## blackhillsjk (Mar 2, 2012)

Still in the Black Hills (Rapid City Area)....Still No locals in HD...All competitors including Direct and all Cable companies have it and have for years....No, I am not paying for an antenna since I already pay the same as everyone else who does have Locals in HD......Just throwing it out there......Oh whoez me !!!!!....No need to bash me, just pointing out the facts is all.


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## John W (Dec 20, 2005)

What does DISH say about this when you inquire?


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## blackhillsjk (Mar 2, 2012)

"Sorry, don't know when it will happen.".....When I tell them all of their competition has all the locals in HD, they don't seem to care.....It is certainly not a priority for them..... I call every year about it....Many requests have been put in from this site as well from Dish people....We are just not as important as customers as others I guess....Not in big enough market to matter to them.....Not looking looking for a fight, but that is the way it is.


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## James Long (Apr 17, 2003)

Market #172 of 210 covering 0.088% of US Television homes. (Not that some smaller markets are not already in HD.)

I still have not figured out why Rapid City is on 110 and 119. It seems like one of those locations could be used for HD. Unless there is not room for ALL of the channels to be carried in HD.


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## camo (Apr 15, 2010)

I'm just the opposite Dish has locals if you want to call it that, its more like the RFDTV show out of Sioux Falls, but not Directv and I'm east of you a couple hundred miles in the middle of nowhere. Why not just go over to Directv they offer more IMO anyway.


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## RBA (Apr 14, 2013)

blackhillsjk said:


> Still in the Black Hills (Rapid City Area)....Still No locals in HD...All competitors including Direct and all Cable companies have it and have for years....No, I am not paying for an antenna since I already pay the same as everyone else who does have Locals in HD......Just throwing it out there......Oh whoez me !!!!!....No need to bash me, just pointing out the facts is all.


Apparently having locals in HD isn't that important to you. After 14 years you haven't switched or put up an OTA antenna.


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## Jim5506 (Jun 7, 2004)

You are the victim of the unintended consequences of congressional meddling in the TV industry.

Several years ago congress (probably at the behest of the NAB) passed a law that says that if a carrier carries one TV signal in a DMA in HD, it must carry all HD signals on full power stations in that DMA. The deadline for meeting this was , I believe 2011, or whatever.

Now the unintended consequences are that it is not profitable for them to do this on the very small DMA's, so they must either carry none or all and economically none is cheaper because there are not enough subscribers in your DMA to defray the cost of putting tin the infrastructure to receive those signals and/or to keep them up and running.

If our dear legislators had left things alone and let the marketplace dictate which channels were profitable enough to carry in HD and which were not, you might have 3 or 4 or more HD channels by now or you might still have none, but the odds are you would have more than zero because some stations would either pay for the infrastructure themselves or share the cost with Dish.

Since DirecTV has the locals in HD, there is already some infrastructure there, it might be entirely Dish Networks fault - there are just too few Dish network subs in the area to satisfy Charlie's bean counters - go door to door and sign people up for Dish network or switch to another carrier if you must have HD locals.

Evidently not having HD locals is not enough of a hurt on their cash flow from there to move Dish to carry them.

Then again maybe one of Charlie's ex-wives (if he has any, I do not know) lives there and he has to provide her with Dish service free so he's starving her of HD locals.

I am in DMA #143 and DirecTV only added this area in HD locals a couple of years ago - this was really an almost all Dish town - very few DirecTV dishes to be seen, but there are becoming more and more now.

The AVSForum list shows Rapid City as DMA 174 out of 210, so it may be a bit off.

With the oil boom, perhaps Dish might give the area another look, but the Saudi's are raining on that parade.


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## James Long (Apr 17, 2003)

Jim5506 said:


> Several years ago congress (probably at the behest of the NAB) passed a law that says that if a carrier carries one TV signal in a DMA in HD, it must carry all HD signals on full power stations in that DMA. The deadline for meeting this was , I believe 2011, or whatever.


"As of February 2013, satellite carriers are required to carry ALL available local HD stations (network and non-network) in all markets where they carry any local station in HD. This threshhold was 15% in February 2010, 30% in February 2011, 60% in February 2012 and increases to 100% in February 2013. The rule does not require all markets to be carried in HD, but if any station in the market is carried in HD, all HD stations in that market must be offered carriage in HD."

The phased in approach was a result of an agreement between the FCC, DISH and DirecTV. Both satellite carriers said that they could not meet an immediate "carry one carry all" per market rule without turning off HD carriage in markets. So there was a compromise.



Jim5506 said:


> The AVSForum list shows Rapid City as DMA 174 out of 210, so it may be a bit off.


Market 172 as of January 2015 per Nielsen's official list. (Or as they put it "Estimates as of January 1, 2015 and used throughout the 2014-2015 television season. Estimates are effective September 27, 2014.")


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## blackhillsjk (Mar 2, 2012)

Turned out to be an interesting topic of discussion.....RBA, if you want to buy me an antenna, I will use it. But I am already paying for my Locals in HD but am not receiving them. Those who do have locals in HD are paying the exact same as me. So..... Why would I want to pay again for a service I have already paid for?


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## harsh (Jun 15, 2003)

blackhillsjk said:


> But I am already paying for my Locals in HD but am not receiving them.


Who says you're paying for the HD version?


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## KyL416 (Nov 11, 2005)

Yeah Dish's non-locals pricing is only $5 cheaper, it didn't go up when HD locals got added, and there's no difference in price if your locals are available HD or SD, or if you're in a market like NYC or LA with around 20 stations or in a small market like Augusta GA where only the Big 4 and PBS are available.


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## Jim5506 (Jun 7, 2004)

I don't think there is a discount for not having your HD locals.

If you were grandfathered to not having locals at all you get the $5 discount, but I don't think that is available to anyone today since the charge for locals is rolled into the entire package pricing.

The $5 was for no locals, not for HD locals or not - that is no longer an option.


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## blackhillsjk (Mar 2, 2012)

True dat


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