This was in today's Morning Call (Allentown, PA):
DirecTV mistakenly pulls plug on PBS 39
Lehigh Valley DirecTV subscribers looking for local public television station PBS 39 on Sunday and Monday may have been surprised to see, instead of Big Bird or Elmo, a message on-screen saying the station's contract with DirecTV had expired Dec. 31, 2005.
However, it was just a paperwork glitch that shut PBS 39 off the biggest U.S. satellite television provider for two days, according to WLVT TV's director of technology Dan Labert.
Labert says PBS 39 is carried by DirecTV at no cost to the station as "a courtesy" for the Philadelphia market.
He said in July, the station sent a standard request for carriage form due Oct. 1 to DirecTV, but the form was lost by DirecTV. Officials from DirecTV were unavailable for comment.
Labert said he talked to DirecTV officials on Dec. 28 and thought things had been straightened out, but at midnight New Year's Eve DirecTV pulled the plug on PBS 39.
"When the ball dropped we went off the air," Labert said.
Labert said the station received a dozen or so complaints from customers before being reinstated on DirecTV early Tuesday morning.
My logic tells me tv stations should pay DTV to carry them so that it increases their viewership but something tells me it's the other way around. Which just isn't right.
