I'm not a dish owner but I figured some of you would be interested. Dishing up expanded menu, but Astros lost in space By DAVID BARRON Copyright 2001 Houston Chronicle In case you haven't checked your satellite dish since Wednesday night, DirecTV on Thursday launched expanded local service for the 41 markets, including Houston, in which it carries local channels. In Houston, the lineup of four channels available on the dish -- 2, 11, 13 and 26, the four network affiliates -- now includes KUHT (Ch. 8), KTXH (Ch. 20), KHWB (Ch. 39), KXLN (Ch. 45), KTBU (Ch. 55), KZJL (Ch. 61) and KHSH (Ch. 67). If you're counting, that increases the number of local stations available on DirecTV from four to 11. And if you're really paying attention through your post-holiday funk, you've noticed what it doesn't include -- KNWS (Ch. 51), the Astros' over-the-air station. In the past, the only leg up cable could claim over satellite broadcasters (with the exception, of course, of the usual subjective things that any provider uses in an effort to sell its product) has been local channel availability. For sports fans, that has meant cable-only access to over-the-air Astros games on 51 and Rockets games on 20. As of Thursday, that's no longer the case for Rockets fans, since Channel 20 is one of the seven stations added to DirecTV's Houston lineup. But for now, at least, Channel 51 remains available only via rabbit ears or cable systems. Why, you ask? You're going to love this one. June 30 was the deadline for stations to apply for must-carry status on DirecTV, said company spokesman Robert Mercer. Johnson Broadcasting, which owns Channel 51 and KLDT in Dallas, submitted its application a day late -- July 1. "Under the law, we do not have to reconsider their carriage status for another four years," Mercer said. "They've appealed to the Federal Communications Commission, and the ruling came back in early December that backed us." As for the possibility of Channel 51 being added at some date, Mercer added: "At this point, we've locked up all our channel capacity." There are, of course, two sides to every tale, and one would assume Channel 51 has an explanation for missing the deadline and, thus, the chance to have its programming and advertising messages -- including Astros games -- on DirecTV. Alas, a station spokesman did not return calls seeking information Thursday. We will update with information as warranted. For the moment, however, the bottom line is that you can now watch every Rockets game on DirecTV -- should you care to do so, of course -- but only those Astros games available from Fox Sports Net, not Channel 51. It is a puzzlement.
Directv added upn,wb, and all the local channels besides abc,cbs,nbc, and fox. If you don't own Directv, you're really missing out. Now i can cancell my time warner subscription all together. I used to keep it for the local upn,wb stations, but since they've been added, why?
This is great news! Wait, I have a satelite system. Has channel 20 been added? Heck no I have Dish Network, who even refused to air last Wednesdays game, which was on Fox Sports.
David Baron is just the best writer. I wish he did more than sports media issues, but I love his columns.
I'm gonna have to disagree with you there Jeff. I think he spends too much time interviewing the likes of Jim Nance and Keith Oberman. It's as if he has some sort of fixation with them. OS
