November 2, 2009

Do you have family members in other states? Do you have children in college? Wouldn’t it be great to know what is going on in their area, directly from the TV stations, where they are? This way you can be informed of storms, disasters, and other events directly from where they are from.

Why can’t you? It isn’t because of technology; we have the technology. It is because of an outdated law that made sense in the 1960’s but not today. The Broadcasters defend the current law by saying that it is critical to protecting the local TV stations because they give access to important local information. Or, is it that the law protects the Broadcasters profit? After all, Broadcasters make money through advertising.

Broadcasters have a lot of lobbying power in Congress. So, how do we get the law changed? By standing up to Broadcasters and telling Congress you want change! Contact you Congressional Representative today. One voter can have the impact of thousands, when they reach out to their Congressman. We can not change this law without your help! The Satellite Home Viewer Act is up for renewal NOW, your Congressional Representative is voting NOW. This is the time for you to speak out.

We have pre-drafted letters for you. On the bottom right of this page, you can get the contact information for YOUR Congressman. Send a letter TODAY, before it is too late.

Even if we can not get the law totally changed we need to tell Congress to make it fair for all Americans to be able to get Network stations. One of the drafts currently under consideration requires the FCC to come up with a revised standard for determining eligibility to receive digital distant networks, and that is good. The problem is that the Network lobby got language inserted which requires the FCC to use Digital Signal study done in 2005, before there were any real digital signals. If this remains and becomes legislation it means nothing will change and many Americans who can not receive a Network signal will still not be able to do so.

We need you to ask Congress to make this law fair. Congress needs to require the FCC to conduct a new Digital Signal study using current technology that will allow Americans with no access to Network signal to receive a Distant Network.

Please send a letter, or email to your Congressional representatives Today.

Even if you have already sent one send another one, it is a crucial time right now!

September 29, 2009

There are some of you TV households out there with no networks and though you have come to us for help, we have been unable to access any networks for you. This may be because your local affiliates are denying your waivers or we simply do not offer networks out of the cities that you have interest in. For the people in this predicament we want you to know that we are making progress. Just recently our CEO, Mike Mountford, visited Washington D.C. to discuss our issues with representatives from all over the country. He made sure to let them know that we still plan on making our voices known to congress right now as they are making major decisions impacting this issue.

Some of you that have called in, but have had no luck in gaining our networks may be aware of a petition that we are having our shoppers and customers fill out in order to help fight this issue. This petition, located on the right side of the home page, requires only your name and address and with your help we will be one step closer to gaining access to the networks that you want and should have the right to receive!

It is also crucial that you contact your senators now with this message; they are in the middle of a debate over the provisions of the bill that will be ultimately enacted into law. At the same time it would also be helpful to contact your representative with the same message. Contact information is located in the right hand corner of the home page, and we have also provided sample letters on this site for you to use well.

Act NOW or we have no hope!!!

September 9, 2009

There are some network affiliates out there that will automatically deny your waivers. These affiliates are the ones stopping most of you from receiving these networks and are preventing us from supplying them to you. With these affiliates in the way, most of you will not be able to gain access to your favorite ABC, CBS, NBC and FOX shows and these are the affiliates that we are trying to overcome with our petition to congress.

As an example of how uncaring these networks are, we have taken some of our numbers gathered over time to show you just how many people are being denied. We have sent KTVZ (an NBC affiliate out of Bend, Oregon) 3073 waivers; 100% of which were denied! Another such network is KHGI (out of Kearney, Nebraska) which we have sent 997 waivers to them so that people could gain access to an ABC network, 100% of which were denied as well! Just on these two networks there have been over 4,000 people denied news, sports, weather and their favorite shows.

In some cases, affiliates who have been approving waivers in the past have now, since the digital transition, started denying more. We had anticipated a flood of local affiliates approving waivers and allowing people to get their networks after the DTV transition, simply because the digital feeds are weaker and the range is shorter. As we found out with KLFY (out of Lafayette, Louisiana) that was not the case. They had denied 60% more people who were looking to receive a CBS feed to see their favorite shows, since the transition.

Below, we have supplied a list of all the affiliates that we have sent waivers to, how many, and the success rate of weather or not they are approving or denying waivers. Find your local affiliates, ask them why they have the power to keep you from watching what you want to watch on your TV. Also, don't forget to sign the petition on our website so that we can overcome these obstacles together and get you the networks you're missing on your TV today.

Click here to view Analog Waiver Stats

Click here to view Digital Waiver Stats

August 11, 2009

There are customers in the United States that are unable to get major networks through Dish Network for a variety of reasons. The customers are supposed to be able to at least receive their locals with an antenna, and if not they should be allowed to receive distant networks. If they are not automatically approved, they can submit waivers to the local affiliates in their area for approval to subscribe to distant networks. It is the local affiliates' responsibility to check the signal strength for that customer's physical address. However, the laws currently state that the local affiliates can deny waivers under any circumstances, even without checking signal strength.

For an example, Mr. Curry can not get his local channels through an antenna (now that his local affiliates changed to digital) because he lives 60-70 miles away. Dish Network does not supply his locals for his area; therefore he is reaching out to us. We submitted waivers on his behalf to his local affiliates for approval. The local affiliate for NBC (WDAM) responded back within 3 hours, denying his request (this process typically takes 2 weeks). WGBC (FOX), WMDN (CBS), and WJTV (CBS) all denied him within the first 6 days. We have been working with Mr. Curry to help his situation. Mr. Curry states, "I cannot get these networks over the air with an antenna and having to pay the cable company $40/mo [just for locals] is ridiculous. Is there anybody I can write or call?" If there is anyone else in this same situation, we recommend going to the home page and signing our petition, as well as sending a letter to your congressman. You can find your congressman by clicking here.

Also, we have pre-written a sample letter that you can use by clicking here. The more customers we have helping us, the sooner we will be able to get this resolved. Thanks for your support.

-Your Distant Networks Team

July 31, 2009

Welcome and thank you for checking out the MyTVRights.com Blog. Here we will be having weekly updates on what our company is working hard on so that you, our customers, are able to get network channels regardless where you live in the United States.

For those of you who are Dish Network customers, we are able to, based on your physical address, supply you with the four major network channels ABC, CBS, NBC and FOX. Although currently we are unable to supply the local networks for all our customers, we are able to supply high definition feeds from Chicago or Los Angeles and standard definition from New York and San Francisco. Eligibility is purely based off of your physical location. If you are able to pick up your local networks with a digital over-the-air-antenna, then sadly, we are not able to help you. Our networks will come at an additional cost, separate from your Dish Network bill and can be charged monthly, semi-yearly or on a yearly basis.

Something noteworthy would also be concerning those Dish Network customers who are, what is referred to as, in the Eastern Arc (ask your local Dish Network reps for details), as you would be unable to receive our networks without adding an additional dish. Also, for Dish Network customers who travel in Recreational Vehicles, please visit www.MyDistantNetworks.com and click the link labeled “RV Requests”, fill out the required paperwork and one of our representatives will call you within 72 hours.

Because the Distant Networks eligibility is based on your physical address, there are some of you who may not be able to receive these services from us. If this happens to be your case, we do have two available options for you. The first option we have is called a waiver. A waiver is, essentially, a “permission slip” sent to your local affiliate asking if we can supply the distant networks to you. These waivers can either be approved or denied so it is not guaranteed and in some cases, can take up to 35 days to hear a response.

This is how the current process works. Right now, this law is being reviewed in DC, and we are fighting for your right to view networks throughout the US, just as you are currently able to read newsprint from all over the US. You can go to http://www.mytvrights.com watch our video and sign our petition.

This concludes the first post of our official blog. If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to call and ask one of our representatives any questions you may have concerning your eligibility. Please keep an eye out for future posts, as we will be updating this ideally once a week with new information and our fight to supply our customers with network channels regardless of where they live.

- Your Distant Networks Team