La Plata County is an orphan county, which gets its programs from Albuquerque, and is unable to get the local news on TV. However, the recent response from Dish Network has brought Denver television closer to La Plata County. Dish representatives have told the La Plata County officials that offering Denver service to the community is not unfeasible. This means that it is possible to pick up a signal from Denver and then move the county from New Mexico market to Denver.
The county staff is planning to collect a petition for market modification to Federal Communications Commission. This petition will demonstrate the need to have in-state programming. It is by market modification that FCC can modify the market boundaries of a television broadcaster. A rule should also be made authorizing the local petitioning process, and before the establishment of the rule, only satellite and broadcast companies should have the right to petition the market.
After the submission of the petition, FCC has 120 days to review the same and then accept or reject market modification. After market modification, satellite operators need to reach agreements with the affiliate station and this process can take 30 to 90 days to finish. It is expected that the county will acquire stations like CBS, ABC, NBC, Fox, and PBS, after the approval.
The request for Denver programming from the county is a year old and now it has reached a turning point. “One of the many stops in getting to the finish line of hopefully getting Denver TV service here is that the satellite companies find it ‘not technically unfeasible.’ We got a letter from DISH TV that essentially says it is technically feasible if some additional criteria are met. We sent the same letter to DirecTV. The response window is still open,” said the County Commissioner, Julie Westendorff.
Expectations are high for La Plata county residents and it is expected that they can receive the services within a year.
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