# No HD Super Bowl for Many



## vbush (Aug 22, 2006)

No HD for Super Bowl for majority in Tyler/Longview/Lufkin/Nacogdoches DMA is subject of front page story in Lufkin, TX newspaper.

http://www.lufkindailynews.com/hp/content/news/stories/2008/01/05/HDTV_0105.html

The biggest tv event of the year and no HD for a significant number in the country :-(


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## Carl Spock (Sep 3, 2004)

vbush, if this is your local station, can you please explain something for me? The article was very poorly written. What is the problem?

1) Lufkin's Fox station only broadcasts in SD.

- or -

2) The cable company doesn't distribute their feed in HD.

It is unclear to me which is the case.

Thanks in advance.


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## vbush (Aug 22, 2006)

Carl Spock said:


> vbush, if this is your local station, can you please explain something for me? The article was very poorly written. What is the problem?
> 
> 1) Lufkin's Fox station only broadcasts in SD.
> 
> ...


The Fox station for this DMA is in Longview and while it broadcasts in HD it can't be picked up OTA in the southern half of the region. The only station that serves the southern part of the DMA is one of the two ABC stations in the region. Apparently the cable company & the Fox station are in dispute over HD. Much of the region can only get locals thru satellite which has no HD locals for D or E.


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## Xaa (Nov 17, 2005)

vbush said:


> No HD for Super Bowl for majority in Tyler/Longview/Lufkin/Nacogdoches DMA is subject of front page story in Lufkin, TX newspaper.
> 
> http://www.lufkindailynews.com/hp/content/news/stories/2008/01/05/HDTV_0105.html
> 
> The biggest tv event of the year and no HD for a significant number in the country :-(


I feel your pain, but I don't think Lufkin constitutes "a significant number in the country". Also, the article states that if you get TV from Consolidated Communications, you would get FOX and the Super Bowl in HD. That means some of the ownership here is placed on consumer choice.


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## Carl Spock (Sep 3, 2004)

Thank you. That is much clearer.  You'd think things could be worked out with the cable company over the next month but I guess not.

Since the Fox station isn't availble OTA for the southern half of the DMA, can't people on DirecTV at least get a waiver and receive the east or west coast Fox HDTV feed? That's what happened to me.


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## Carl Spock (Sep 3, 2004)

Xaa said:


> I feel your pain, but I don't think Lufkin constitutes "a significant number in the country".


Actually, the OP is right but in another way. A lot of the Fox affiliates in smaller DMAs are cash strapped operations. Mine certainly is. When they went digital, they only went to SDTV. That satisfies the law. There is nothing that says they have to broadcast in HDTV. Nobody in the La Crosse/Eau Claire DMA who gets the local Fox affiliate either OTA or on cable will see the game in HDTV.

I know from other threads there are other undercapitalized Fox stations out there who also switched to just SD. Many over the country will not see the game in HD.


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## vbush (Aug 22, 2006)

Xaa said:


> I feel your pain, but I don't think Lufkin constitutes "a significant number in the country". Also, the article states that if you get TV from Consolidated Communications, you would get FOX and the Super Bowl in HD. That means some of the ownership here is placed on consumer choice.


Lufkin and others through out the country without access to local Fox HD constitues a significant number IMHO. Consolidated serves a only small portion of the region so most people do NOT have access to Condolidated.


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## vbush (Aug 22, 2006)

Since the Fox station isn't availble OTA for the southern half of the DMA, can't people on DirecTV at least get a waiver and receive the east or west coast Fox HDTV feed? That's what happened to me.[/QUOTE]

I was told by D that since I received the Fox SD local I was not eligible for DNS.


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## Xaa (Nov 17, 2005)

vbush said:


> Lufkin and others through out the country without access to local Fox HD constitues a significant number IMHO. Consolidated serves a only small portion of the region so most people do NOT have access to Condolidated.


Can *you* opt for consolidated?

Who else throughout the country and what are we talking in numbers? Believe me, if it's one person and that person happens to be me, I see it as significant, but I don't know that the population of Lufkin plus these other yet to be revealed places constitute statistical significance.

I'm sorry. There are many benefits to living rurally. I did for many years and likely will again, but with those benefits come some inconveniences and technology lags like this. It really is part of the choice.


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## Carl Spock (Sep 3, 2004)

vbush said:


> I was told by D that since I received the Fox SD local I was not eligible for DNS.


Call again. It's 2009 already at DirecTV. You can't get Fox in digital TV off-air. That's the deciding question.

One thing in my favor was this utility on DirecTV's site. It said I can't get the digital signal from my local Fox affiliate OTA and therefore was eligible. I kept referring back to it when I talked to the various CSRs - you have to get transferred to a special DNS waiver division for approval.

I also did what they said not to do. I contacted my local Fox station. I asked the station's telephone operator for the name of their waiver coordinator, found contact info for him on their website and sent him an email. I said I know the waiver procedure has to start with DirecTV but keep an eye open for my request, will you, please? Again I linked back to the DirecTV site. Everything went through easily for me.


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## Jim5506 (Jun 7, 2004)

Most of this DMA lies within the Houston spotbeam on dish Network. HINT. HINT.


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## spartanstew (Nov 16, 2005)

But you guys had Lauren Jones. It's a fair trade, right?


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## audiomaster (Jun 24, 2004)

If I was a Dish installer, I would be doing some serious marketing in Lufkin in the next couple of weeks. Of course if the town would change its name to "DISH" maybe Charlie would wire them all up free!!


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## vbush (Aug 22, 2006)

audiomaster said:


> If I was a Dish installer, I would be doing some serious marketing in Lufkin in the next couple of weeks. Of course if the town would change its name to "DISH" maybe Charlie would wire them all up free!!


Dish locals are SD only.


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## DawgLink (Nov 5, 2006)

Super Bowl won't be in HD for all Cable here in New Orleans either

Thank GOD I have D*


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