El Dorado County working on last ditch effort to get California TV stations in South Lake Tahoe

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. - For years, South Lake Tahoe residents have been expressing their desire to bring California television stations to Spectrum/Charter Communications, and other cable and satellite providers. There have been letters and telephone conversations with government officials, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), and KCRA and other Sacramento television stations.

So far, nothing has worked and those living in South Lake Tahoe, California have had to watch the news from Reno television stations. During elections, and weather and fire emergencies, many want to watch the California news and not Nevada since it affects them most.

The market of a television station is currently established by its Designated Market Area (DMA) as defined by Nielsen and/or modified by the Commission. According to the FCC, a DMA region (and there are over 200 of them in the U.S.) is a group of counties and zip codes that form an exclusive geographic area in which the home market television stations hold a dominance of total hours viewed. Every county in the country is assigned to a DMA, and those cable and/or satellite systems and television stations in the same DMA are considered to be in the same market.

South Lake Tahoe is in the Reno DMA. Strangely enough, the North Shore is in the Sacramento DMA even though, as the crow flies, they are closer to Reno than the South Shore. The west slope of El Dorado County is in the Sacramento DMA.

South Lake Tahoe is not alone in this situation.

"In certain multi-state DMAs, cable and/or satellite subscribers located in out-of-state counties within a DMA are sometimes unable to receive in-state broadcast television stations and therefore may lack access to in-state news, sports, public affairs, political information, and emergency information," said Nancy Murphy of the FCC Media Bureau.

This so-called “orphan county” problem can be addressed via a petition to the FCC to modify upon the request of a television station, cable and/or satellite operator, or county government, a particular commercial television broadcast station’s local television market to add or delete communities to better reflect market realities, said Murphy.

Some locals, including South Lake Tahoe Councilwoman Tamara Wallace, met with Congressman McClintock to see if he could address the situation, but he could not.

Some City of South Lake Tahoe staff and council members then met with El Dorado County's Director of Communications and Outreach Carla Hass, and Hass is now working on the situation since the FCC must get the request from a county government (or the cable/satellite company).

Hass said the County is looking into the process of petitioning the FCC, but first, the carrier has to complete a feasibility study. They are going through Direct TV as the carrier. Even though Dirct TV is engaging in their study, they can still decide not to go forward should they determine it isn't feasible to carry California media.

Hass is still trying to get clarification on a satellite feasibility study with Charter Communications, one of the main cable carriers on the South Shore. Several years ago Charter told the County that KCRA's fees wouldn't make it feasible to carry the popular Sacramento channel.

"Direct TV told us the study could take a while, " said Hass.

If Direct TV (and possibly Charter) determines it is feasible, the County will petition the FCC who then has 120 days to review. Once the review is complete, carriers would then have 30 days to start carrying it as the DMA would be changed.

Market Modification is a process established by Congress that allows the FCC to modify the boundaries of a particular commercial broadcast TV station's local television market assignment for cable or satellite carriage purposes.

The FCC makes a determination on whether to grant a market modification based on the consideration of five statutory factors that demonstrate that they provide local service to the community. Significantly, one factor requires consideration of access to television stations that are located in the same state as the community considered for modification.

There are five requirements for the petition for a market modification of the DMA:

1. Whether the station or other stations located in the same area have been historically carried on: (a) the cable system or systems within that community; and (b) the satellite carrier or carriers serving that community;

2. Whether the television station provides coverage or other local services to that community;

3. Whether modifying the local market of the television station would promote consumers’ access to television broadcast station signals that originate in their state of residence;

4. Whether any other television station that is eligible to be carried by a satellite carrier in the community in fulfillment of the requirements provides news coverage of issues of concern to the community or provides carriage or coverage of sporting and other events.

5. Evidence of viewing patterns in households that subscribe and do not subscribe to the services offered by multichannel video programming distributors within the areas served by the multichannel video programming distributors in the community.

Not all factors have to be met. According to the FCC, the five statutory factors are not intended to be exclusive but demonstrate that a community is part of a particular station’s market. No one factor has more importance than any other because each factor is valuable in assessing whether a particular community should be included or excluded from a station’s local market. The importance of particular factors will vary depending on the circumstances of the case. The Commission may also consider other relevant information.

A petition for market modification must also include specific evidence describing the station’s relationship to the community at issue. This is the minimum information necessary for the Commission to make a determination. A petition must include:

1. A map or maps illustrating the relevant community locations and geographic features, station transmitter sites, cable system headend or satellite carrier local receive facility locations, terrain features that would affect station reception, mileage between the community and the television station transmitter site, transportation routes, and any
other evidence contributing to the scope of the market;

2. Noise‐limited service contour maps4 delineating the station’s technical service area and showing the location of the cable system headends or satellite carrier local receive facilities and communities in relation to the service areas;

3. Available data on shopping and labor patterns in the local market;

4. Television station programming information derived from station logs or the local edition of the television guide;

5. Cable system or satellite carrier channel line‐up cards or other exhibits establishing historic carriage, such as television guide listings;

6. Published audience data for the relevant station showing its average all-day audience (i.e., the reported audience averaged over Sunday‐Saturday, 7 a.m.‐1 a.m., or an equivalent time period) for both multichannel video programming distributor (MVPD) and non‐MVPD households or other specific audience information, such as station advertising and sales data or viewer contribution records; and

7. If applicable, a statement that the station is licensed to a community within the same state as the relevant community.

With an election coming in 2024, there is still hope that South Lake Tahoe will have access to California stations on cable and satellite TV.