DirecTV to Add Local HD Channels in 16 Markets

Of the new markets, 15 will receive local channels from DirecTV for the first time.

Author:: TVTechnology
Publish date:: Apr 13, 2011

EL SEGUNDO, CALIF.: DirecTV will add local HD broadcast signals in 16 additional markets, beginning this summer, the satellite service provider said this week. Of the new markets, 15 will receive local channels from DirecTV for the first time. By the end of 2011, it will offer local-channel access to 99 percent of U.S. TV homes, covering 190 markets across the country, including local HD in 174 of those markets, the company said. The new HD markets are:

Alexandria, La.
Billings, Mont.
Chico-Redding, Calif.*
(*SD locals already available)
Elmira, N.Y.
Great Falls, Mont.
Greenwood-Greenville, Miss.
Hattiesburg-Laurel, Miss.
Jackson, Tenn.
Jonesboro, Ark.
Lake Charles, La.
Panama City, Fla.
Parkersburg, W.Va.
Quincy, Ill.-Hannibal, Mo.-Keokuk, Iowa
St. Joseph, Mo.
Utica, N.Y.
Yuma, Ariz.

-- Television Broadcast

Roll-out to start this summer

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June additions will bring total with local hi-def service to 155

DirecTV plans to begin HD delivery of local broadcast digital channels in approximately a dozen markets by the end of 2005, if not sooner. New subscribers, and only new subs, will be targeted first to order MPEG-4 receivers. The DBS provider has not yet made a formal announcement about the start of local-station H

DirecTV had grown its markets offering local broadcast HD channels by six in the past several days.

DBS provider DirecTV has begun offering local HD channels to dish subs in the markets of Minneapolis/St. Paul, Sacramento, Pittsburgh, San Diego, Nashville, Kansas City, Columbus, Ohio, and Birmingham, Ala. The firm’s ramp-up of local HD channels in these eight DMAs is part of a nationwide development of HD programm

The move, announced Nov. 19, takes the direct-to-home satellite provider’s total number of markets where it carries local broadcasters’ HD programming to 115

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The markets consist of mostly small and medium-sized DMAs.

DirecTV will begin providing HD channels from local broadcasters in up to 40 markets within the next 6-8 months, according to published reports from the DBS firm's annual meeting last week. DirecTV's Spaceway F1 satellite was successfully launched in April, and a second bird, Spaceway F2, is scheduled to be launched in