Letter and reply from WFAA in Dallas

[AAhitman]

To WFAA
When do you expect to offer you digital broadcast over the DirecTV satellite? I don't get a good signal over the air where I live and have had to resort to watching other networks for the HD content. Now the other networks are allowing DirecTV to offer their digital broadcast over their system but not WFAA. I am just wondering when you will decide to stop losing customers.

From WFAA
Thank you for your e-mail. WFAA is in negotiation with satellite companies for carriage of both our analog and high definition digital signals. We hope to reach an agreement shortly to make high definition signal available directly through satellite providers. Please know that WFAA’s high definition digital signal is available, at no cost, to all viewers with digital sets and an antenna capable of receiving the signal directly over the air. Additionally, major cable operators in the metropolitan Dallas-Fort Worth area are presently offering WFAA-TV's analog and high definition signals.

We genuinely appreciate your viewership of WFAA and know that you are contacting us out of an interest in watching programming that we provide. Viewers have more choices than ever when it comes to subscribing to television signals and we understand that it can take quite an investment to acquire the equipment necessary to access those signals. As a result, please be assured we are doing everything possible to deliver our signals to all viewers and subscribers, realizing that the easier it is for you to access our signal - the more likely it is you will watch us. Again, thank you for taking the time to contact us and sharing your thoughts on this situation.
Sincerely,

Ruth Silva

I guess they are trying and as soon as DirecTV pays them what they want it will be offered. Until then we are all out of luck here in BigD if you want ch 8 over the satellite.

[JimSpence]

Typical canned response. Lots of words but no real content. Snd notice the lean toward cable companies.

[TheBigDogs]

I was under the impression that the Librarian of Congress made a ruling some years back that fixed the fee that local broadcasters could charge for satellite service. Has that changed, is access to local channels now up in the air?

I would be willing to bet that there's something behind the lack of this station on DTV and if you follow the money it leads directly to the cable companies.

[Malibyte]

I have a similar problem, in that I'm in a "fringe area" and can't get HD over-the-air, so I have to rely on my satellite company. I had a talk with DISH over the weekend, and they tell me that my local channels will be available in Hi-Def starting in February. If DISH does it, you know that DirecTV will have to follow suit soon.

[beardad]

I had a similar problem with KXAS. Their HD transmitter is terrible when it works!

[Hersheytx]

And of course ABC has the Super Bowl this year......Damn I hate Belo.
Looks like I am watching it in SD this year.
I just wish I could install a C-Band dish and bypass them completely.

[BlueMonk]

I wonder why the response mentioned that WFAA is in negotiations for DTV to carry analog signals. Isn't analog the normal channel 8 we get on the locals through Directv?

[AbMagFab]

Yes, which is why the reponse is canned, and meaningless.

When will people realize this about virtually all letter/e-mail responses?

[vatoloc0]

I just off the phone with DTV and they turned on channel 86 for me!!! I had to spend an hour on the phone but boy is it worth it. I live in the DFW area and wanted to let you guys know that you still have a chance to watch the super bowl in HD! They are going to bring local Dallas ABC to DTV but you'll need a hardware upgrade sometime in the summer.

[ebonovic]

Originally Posted by TheBigDogs

I was under the impression that the Librarian of Congress made a ruling some years back that fixed the fee that local broadcasters could charge for satellite service. Has that changed, is access to local channels now up in the air?

I would be willing to bet that there's something behind the lack of this station on DTV and if you follow the money it leads directly to the cable companies.

The Librarian of Congress.... ummm... No...... I think you have the wrong area..

Laws where past, called MUST CARRY laws... but those where specifically and issolated to the SD/Analog signals... There has been no such law put in place for the HD/Digital signals.

Also 2006 was a renewal year for those channels (basically paperwork had to be completed), some stations either didn't do it, or something else happen... (that may or may not apply the Dallas channel, but at the beginning of the year, there where a bunch of smaller stations out in the dark)

[TheBigDogs]

The Librarian of Congress is the first level of authority to rule on all copyright issues. The LoC was the decision maker who gave satellite signal carriers the right to distribute LiL SD signals. This reference covers the plea in that decision:
http://www.copyright.gov/fedreg/1998/63fr3685.html

To my knowledge, that is the reason why satellite customers pay an extra amount for local service. Since the 1998 ruling gave satellite viewers the right to local signals, I was under the impression that there would be no negotiation since the fees were already established. The letter from the Dallas ABC outlet indicates that is not the case, so I was just wondering if anyone knew if there had been a change in the decision made by the LoC or if the letter was typical corporate B.S.

[AAhitman]

Originally Posted by vatoloc0

I just off the phone with DTV and they turned on channel 86 for me!!! I had to spend an hour on the phone but boy is it worth it. I live in the DFW area and wanted to let you guys know that you still have a chance to watch the super bowl in HD! They are going to bring local Dallas ABC to DTV but you'll need a hardware upgrade sometime in the summer.

I hope you mean the Mpeg4 upgrade and not another one.