# 8-29-11 STELA Report In-State Broadcast Programming to Congress



## joshjr (Aug 2, 2008)

Anyone else aware of this? this report is pretty good. I emailed my Congressman asking what it means, when the next discussion about it would be, who is on the board representing my area for this, are there any home town calls for my area that I can ask the Congressman about this coming up, etc. Here is the website I found this on http://www.fcc.gov/encyclopedia/satellite-television. My reason for being so interested in this is that my DMA Joplin/Pittsburg does not have a single local station from my state. All my locals come from Kansas and Missouri while I live in Oklahoma. This report seems to have a ton of opinions on what changing DMA structure would mean as well as changing significiantly viewed stations per DMA would mean as well. If you live in an area that locals are provided but you live in a short market or you only get locals from states you dont live in then I recommend you read this article. It is massive though. Who does everyone else feel?


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## joshjr (Aug 2, 2008)

This poll stems from me not having an option of obtaining in state programming or sports from my current provider (D*). I do not agree with the current DMA structure as previously stated my locals come from 2 states I dont live in. Anyone else agree with this way of thinking? Either way please vote.


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## dettxw (Nov 21, 2007)

I feel for you though I don't have the problem myself what with my close proximity to the OKC antenna farm. 

My sister complains about an intrastate but related problem - they get Flint stations but are much closer to Bay City. The weather reports they receive don't apply.

Why is it that there are different rules for cable?
Back in the old hometown, in the Detroit DMA we had the Detroit stations plus the Toledo stations on the cable. Hell, they had the Canadian stations too.

So is there any chance to get some more sensible rules (from a consumers point of view)?


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## Jim5506 (Jun 7, 2004)

Cable and satellite operate under different laws. Cable industry saw fit to lobby for more restrictive rules for satellite way back when the first saw the competition.


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## joshjr (Aug 2, 2008)

Jim5506 said:


> Cable and satellite operate under different laws. Cable industry saw fit to lobby for more restrictive rules for satellite way back when the first saw the competition.


I could care less about that. The fact remains that I should be able to have access to in state programming. Why is it acceptable for my locals to come from two states I do not live in. I get zero locals from my home state. That is just pathetic. I'm doing my duty and letting my Congressman know I am not happy about it either. Now is the time to pounce since the FCC provided a great report on the issues some of us are facing. Its time for change!


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## Jim5506 (Jun 7, 2004)

I have a problem with the methodology of the report.

They calculate "instate" reception as being that the transmitter is within the borders of your state, but that does not guarantee that the signal originates from within your state.

I know of several instances nearby where there is a full power, or even a LP station with its transmitter in New Mexico where the owner and originator of programming for that transmitter is in Texas.

The same is true for many of the small local stations in southwest Colorado, somehow these stations came under the ownership of Albuquerque stations who broadcast their programming and New Mexico centric news/weather, etc. into SW Colorado.

This quirk comprises the majority of the complaints in this matter. Yes we have a "local" broadcast tower, but the programming originates hundreds of miles from us with prople to whom we are such an insignificant bit of their demographic that we are almost totally ignored.

I was raised in Carlsbad, New Mexico and in the 60's we had 3 locally owned TV stations ABC, CBS and NBC affiliates, but the economic circumstances could not support these stations and they were put up for sale. Over the years these 3 stations were passed around among other TV station owners out of El Paso, Midland-Odessa and Lubbock. These stations had little or no interest in covering local events in a small community over 150 miles away. They got NO advertising revenue from this area, it only bumped their DMA statistics up so they could charge their local advertisers a little bit more and all it cost them was maintenance and electricity for these "satellite" stations.

This was a relatively good deal for the remote owner but other than keeping the local satellite station lit up, it had no other advantage for those out in the hinterlands.

Later three of the Albuquerque stations finally gobbled up these three small stations and now the news and politics is at least from within the same state, but Albuquerque is 275 miles from Carlsbad.

Technology has been a bit of a help, because now the local satellite station can insert its own local commercials and splice in a short local news blurb in the 6PM and 10Pm news slot, but weather bulletins are still Albuquerque centric and of little use way out there.

There are still several small communities along the border of New Mexico and Texas that get all their News/Weather/Sports solely from Texas sources. Most of these communities and counties are regarded by other New Mexicans as "little Texas" because they have been enstilled with that culture rather than the New Mexico Culture (I consider this a plus now that I live totally in Texas and can see the advantage), but it is a problem none the less.

Our nation was founded on principles of a democratic republic where states had pre-eminence over the national government but this has been eroded over time by popular election of Senators (so senators represent the people directly instead of the individual state's interests through the legislature).

This flawed DMA construct is another small part of that deconstruction of the original intent of the founding fathers.

Citizens of each state should be afforded at least one network channel originating within the same state.

How to best do this, I do not know.


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## PrinceLH (Feb 18, 2003)

I live in a DMA that covers all the way to Canada. It is a big area, in upper New York State and we have Canadian transmitters within 25 miles of my location, in the St. Lawrence Seaway. Some of our breathern live so far away from the main transmitter, near Watertown, NY, they get a better over-the-air signal from Mount Mansfield, in Vermont. They're still stuck with Directv channels from Watertown and NBC from Rochester, NY. The Canadian channels are omited from both Dishnet and Directv. The local Time Warner Cable, does provide two Canadian stations on their service. It's about time that they allow those Canadian stations to be included in our satellite DMA, since we're under-represented in the number of channels available, in our locals package. Compare it with our southern neighbours, in Syracuse, NY, we only get about a half the number of local channels as they do. Out of the four true local channels that we get, only one offers local news.


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## mcrutland (Dec 29, 2004)

The law should at least be changed to allow satellite companies to at least provide an HD affiliate of every major network (CBS, NBC, ABC, FOX, and CW) if a DMA only provides an SD feed. My DMA has the CW, but it is not in HD. A neighboring DMA (Jackson, TN), was provided an HD CBS affiliate (WTVF) on D*, but now WBBJ (the local ABC affiliate) offers CBS on an SD subchannel. This has resulted in WTVF being removed from D* for Jackson, TN customers. This means CBS is now only available in SD to Jackson customers.


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