"Must carry" rules

[Steve Thompson]

Hi all,

	Based on what I have seen and know in New Hampshire Carroll and Coos
County are in the Portland Maine market. Also Grafton County (Western New
Hampshire) including Littleton and I think Lebanon is in the Burlington VT
TV market. The counties south of that are all in the Boston (Manchester)
market.

	I know that Here Dish network won't let me get Channel 9 so I only
get the Portland Affiliates. DirecTV does allow people statewide to get
Channel 9 (wmur) but their licensing is slightly different according to Dish
network. No Time Warner on my road so that's not an option for me, so I
can't speak directly to what the carry in the area.

Steve Thompson (Ossipee, NH)


-----Original Message-----
From: boston-radio-interest-bounces@tsornin.BostonRadio.org
[mailto:boston-radio-interest-bounces@tsornin.BostonRadio.org] On Behalf Of
Sonny Daye
Sent: Friday, September 04, 2009 10:26 AM
To: boston-radio-interest@lists.BostonRadio.org
Subject: "Must carry" rules

In a posting, Garrett happened to mention that:

<<<<since all of New Hampshire is in the Boston market for must-carry, they
get the Boston signals in addition to the locals>>>

I'm wondering that if that is accurate, how would that apply to a situation
where Time-Warner has taken Channel 4/Boston OFF of their line-up in some NH
towns (Freedom for one) (allegedly for a money dispute), and are now
blocking out duplicate programming from Channel 7/Boston  (NBC) because of a
complaint from Channel 6/Portland which is a "must-carry" for Time-Warner. I
suspect the fact that Time-Warner is "based" in Portland (as far this area
is concerned) is a factor in this issue.
If as Garrett says, "all of New Hampshire is in the Boston market for
must-carry", shouldn't any cable system operating in any town in NH be
required to carry ALL of the Boston stations, even IF the company's "office"
is located in Portland? Exactly how does the "must carry" rules work, and
what are the "technicalities" involved in this issue?


Garrett's Posting:
For what it's worth, Comcast in WRJ allegedly carries WBZ, WCVB,
and WHDH in addition to WCAX, WVNY, and WNNE.  (Zap2it identifies it
as the "Lebanon" system, so presumably the headend is across the river
and, since all of New Hampshire is in the Boston market for
must-carry, they get the Boston signals in addition to the locals.)
Do they really need a third ABC affiliate?  (Do they really even need
a second?)

-GAWollman