Television viewer Barbara Baird of Hyden, Ky., a 30-minute drive to the southwest of Hazard, wanted it.
So did Lora Castle, of Pikeville, Ky., and Tammy Brock, of Warbranch, Ky.
The three Kentucky residents were among the thousands of individuals who made filings in response to a Public Notice with respect to Special Relief and Show Cause Petitions associated with WYMT-57, a Gray Television-owned station serving eastern Kentucky from the city of Hazard.
WYMT is not available for subscribers of either DISH Network or DirecTV in several towns within a half-hour drive of Hazard.
On Wednesday (5/16), Steven A. Broeckaert, the Media Bureau Policy Division’s Senior Deputy Chief, ruled on the matter.
Locals will not be pleased.
In early April, RBR+TVBR reported on an effort by Gray launched in mid-January to get DirecTV and DISH Network to add WYMT, a CBS affiliate serving eastern Kentucky.
At the time, more than 2,200 filings were made in response to Gray’s FCC petition.
The majority of the comments follow the same refrain: WYMT offers local news and weather and sports, whereas the Tri-Cities stations the two DBS providers offer local viewers do not and focus instead on Tennessee and Southwestern Virginia.
Hazard is officially within the Lexington, Ky., DMA, where Gray owns CBS affiliate WKYT-27 in Lexington. While it was originally reported that WYMT relies on WKYT for master control, WYMT’s master control is handled locally in Hazard.
WYMT has long been the area’s only available over-the-air commercial TV station, owing to mountainous terrain and economics, as eastern Kentucky is one of the nation’s most economically disadvantaged regions in the U.S. It airs local newscasts in the morning, afternoon and evening hours on weekdays.
WYMT also offers three locally produced programs and a slate of syndicated TV programming different from that seen on WKYT. These programs are comprised of two locally oriented sports programs and an edition of Issues & Answers, a political program that satisfies WYMT’s public service obligation.
WYMT was partially responsible for the flood of comments to the FCC. On its website is a video and full instructions on how viewers can “tell the FCC why it is so important to have local news, weather and sports on WYMT” available on DirecTV and DISH.
As of now, Lechter County, Ky., is the only area of Kentucky within the Tri-Cities, Tenn.-Va. DMA.
WYMT explained that “federal law” prohibited until now the placement of WYMT on DirecTV or DISH.
All of these efforts did not sway Broeckaert or his colleagues at the Commission.
In an 18-page decision, he denied Gray’s petition on the grounds that the resulting carriage obligation “is not technically and economically feasible for each of the satellite carriers,
and would effectively circumvent Section 338(c)(1).”
In his explanation, he said, “WYMT and WKYT are duplicating CBS network affiliates located in the Lexington DMA. This means that DirecTV and DISH get to decide which of these two duplicating affiliates to carry on their Lexington DMA spot beams.”
Both carriers are exercising their right to carry WKYT across the DMA; any change effectively splits the DMA. If that were to happen, Broeckaert reasons, DISH and DirecTV “would have the effect of forcing carriage of both WYMT and WKYT – duplicating affiliates within the Lexington DMA – on the Lexington DMA spot beams, frustrating the purpose of the Section 338(c)(1) exception.”
That scenario would occur, he says, if 23 counties were deleted from the Lexington DMA.
An alternative option would be taking orphan counties and putting them in WYMT’s market. This could “displace service from a long-established network station,” DirecTV argued. Broeckaert agrees.
Thus, Gray’s petition was tossed, as “the resulting carriage obligation from this market modification request would effectively circumvent the carriers’ right not to carry a duplicating network affiliate on its spot beam serving the Lexington DMA.”
With respect to duplicating affiliates, Section 338(c)(1) provides that satellite carriers are not required to carry more than one affiliate station of a particular network in the same local market, unless the stations are licensed to communities in different states.
Lastly, Broeckaert deemed adding a new station to their spot beams “is per se not technically or economically feasible.”
RBR+TVBR
