Out Of Area Network Reception Via Satelite

I just watched the season premire of SURVIVOR from CBS in New York, even though I live in New Mexico. By doing this I get to watch programs an hour earlier than my neighbors. I have a network package that includes:

FOX, ABC, CBS AND NBC FROM 3 DIFFERENT TIME ZONES.

I get the major networks from my local broadcasters (from Albuquerque) via satelite, as well as from New York and Los Angeles. I love this feature of satelite (I have Dish Network), especially on NFL Sunday when I have a wide variety of games to choose from.

But now here is my question. Although I enjoy this service at the moment coutesy of an FCC waiver that I fought long and hard to get, I hear that congress is working to remove this type of "out of market" network reception. Does anybody know if this is really going to happen, I would hate to lose this service.

P.S. BTW, the Survivor episode was great, I think it is going to be a great season.

 

I used to get that "distant networks" package from Dish Network, then last year they pulled it due to a change in the rules, something called SHIVA. I think that you may be safe if you got the waivers. Around here, there is no way these locals will give waivers, even though I can't even get a normal signal with a large Channel Master on the roof, let alone an HD signal.

 

Nice to know our elected officials are working so hard on our behalf. [/sarcasm]

 

So far so good up here.

My girlfriend has a Star Choice satellite dish. Star Choice is owned by Shaw Cable, one of the major cable/Internet companies in Western Canada. In her package she gets all the CTV, CBC, and Global TV stations from East to West Coast. She also has the option to get 2 of 4 different U.S. major network packages. I think they are Rochester and Detroit for Easter feeds, and Spokane and Seattle for the West.

I know what you guys mean about watching an early feed from the East. It's great. We got to watch the Survivor finale back at the end of last season at 6PM, live in our time zone. It did not air here until 9 PM. By that time, we'd already finished watching it. Also, it's nice to watch David Letterman at a decent hour, 9:35 PM. You see, being in Mountain Time Zone we are at a disadvantage. Our regular U.S. cable TV comes to us via Spokane which is in the Pacific Time Zone. So we get everything here an hour later than the rest of you. Or in the case of the Central Time Zone which gets everything at the same time as the East, we're getting TV shows here in Calgary and Edmonton, three hours later.

Here's an example.

Law And Order: Special Victims Unit one of my fave shows over the past few years was airing on Friday nights on NBC at:
10:00 PM Eastern
9:00 PM Central
10:00 PM Pacific
Since we get our feeds from the Pacific, in Calgary I have to stay up until 11:00 PM to watch a show that I would get back home in Winnipeg at 9.

No one except the night owls watch any of the late night chat shows live in Calgary. We tape Letterman, Leno, Conan, Craig Kilborn, etc. Letterman and Leno air here at 12.35 AM and the rest at 1.35 and 2.35. A far cry from growing up in Winnipeg and watching The Tonight Show w/ Johnny at 10.30 on WDAZ-TV Devils Lake/Grand Forks, ND, the one time NBC affiliate.

I sure hope whatever law gets passed in your congress or senate doesn't affect us up here.

 

I had both SoCal & NYC network channels when I first joined up with DishNet in 1999. Nice to be able to watch the news and NFL etc., everybody was happy. Then that #@%&in' court case and suddenly I'm "not entitled to" them anymore. Led to a very nasty divorce between me and them. Why can't things be left well enough alone? Were the Atlanta stations gonna go broke because I didn't want to watch them? Jeez...

 

Mike,
The US laws are not going to effect Canadians. I have a digital cable box that has a time shifting option on the US networks (Buffalo in the east, Seattle in the west). I don't think the Canadian government is concerned about what US cities we get, as the main issue with local channels in the US has to do with receiving local advertising (I believe).

I don't think I'm saying anything out of turn in admitting that I have a DirecTV dish (as do 750,000 other Canadians when we're not supposed to). It quite a laugh watching local news from Jackson, Miss and then Tucson, Shreveport, Des Moines, etc. Having a few central and mountain time cities is good for us eastern time zone guys if you miss something but don't want to wait the three hours (i.e. Survivor in L.A. is on at 11 p.m. eastern - past my bedtime ). However, I do become riveted watching the highway car chases on KCAL 9 in L.A.

Cliff

 

You are correct, sir.

 

Thank you, sir.

Cliff