W. Va. — DISH has begun providing Clarksburg television stations to its customers in Monongalia and Preston counties, who previously only received Pittsburgh “local” stations.
The additional programming became available in late April and follows a Federal Communications Commission (FCC) ruling in February that both DISH and DIRECTV must offer the West Virginia stations to their customers in the two counties.
A DIRECTV spokeswoman said this week that she could not provide a timeline on when its customers can expect to begin receiving the West Virginia stations.
Dawn Couch, lead public relations manager Mid-Atlantic States for AT&T, said in an email on behalf of DIRECTV, “We are currently working with the owners of the Clarksburg stations to try to make as smooth a transition as possible for our local West Virginia customers.”
DISH spokeswoman Karen Modlin said, “All DISH customers in the two counties have the option to receive the Clarksburg stations, and approximately 80 percent are now able to do so without any equipment changes. There is no additional cost to customers to receive the Clarksburg stations.”
Neither company provided the number of customers impacted.
On Feb 7, the FCC approved modification of the local market of four TV stations from the Clarksburg-Weston Designated Market Area to include Preston and Monongalia counties.
Previously, Pittsburgh stations were considered the “local” stations.
County commissions in Preston and Monongalia petitioned jointly for the action. Although both had received complaints from customers for years, it was only after a 2014 change in federal law allowed local governments to petition the FCC on behalf of customers that they got action.
The petition was filed on the basis that Mon and Preston are “orphan counties.” The FCC defines orphan counties as those served almost exclusively by television stations in a neighboring state, thus limiting customers’ access to news, sports and other information from the state in which they live.
