TVFreedom Calls Gaps in DirecTV Local-Into-Local 'Redlining'
DirecTV is "redlining" when customers in 11 small markets around the country can't get local programming, TVFreedom.org said Tuesday in a blog post. "Sitting on massive profits and facing no technological barriers preventing it from addressing this glaring service gap,…
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DirecTV simply failed to invest in the infrastructure needed to deliver local-into-local TV service to rural customers in these local TV markets," said Rob Kenny, TVFreedom.org director-public affairs. The 11 markets are Alpena, Michigan; Bowling Green, Kentucky; North Platte, Nebraska; Glendive, Montana; Helena, Montana; Presque Isle, Maine; Victoria, Texas; Casper/Riverton, Wyoming; Cheyenne, Wyoming/Scottsbluff, Nebraska; Grand Junction/Montrose, Colorado; and Ottumwa, Iowa/Kirksville, Missouri. The markets have become an issue in AT&T's planned buy of DirecTV, as the big four broadcast network associations raised the lack of local-into-local TV service last week in an ex parte filing in docket 14-90 (see 1506180017). In the blog post, Kenny said it "will certainly be disheartening" if the FCC failed to push DirecTV as a condition of the AT&T deal. "What would that say about DirecTV’s view of rural America?" he asked. DirecTV wouldn't comment Tuesday.