Dish Network begins local service

Kirk Baird

Thursday, Nov. 7, 2002 | 8:28 a.m.

It wasn't long ago that satellite TV subscribers faced a choice beyond which network channels to pick up.

With no access to local TV broadcasts through Direct Broadcast Satellite (DBS), dish owners were forced to rely on either a home TV antenna or cable TV to watch local news.

Or, in some cases, they simply went without.

A 1999 congressional vote, however, changed all that, as it was ruled that the DBS industry had the same right to the local signals as did cable.

Three years later Las Vegas owners of DBS provider Dish Network have the option to watch local programming through their dishes.

Beginning today Dish Network subscribers will be able to receive Las Vegas network affiliates KVVU Channel 5 (Fox), KLAS Channel 8 (CBS), KLVX Channel 10 (PBS), KTNV Channel 13 (ABC), KINC Channel 15 (Univision), KVWB Channel 21 (WB), KTUD Channel 25 (UPN) and KFBT Channel 33 (Independent).

Notably absent is KVBC Channel 3, the NBC affiliate.

Brain Olson, a spokesman for Dish Network, said the company is still in negotiations with KVBC for the rights to retransmit the channel's signal, but he expects to have a deal worked out soon.

The local package will cost $4.99 per month, in addition to the common network package of 50-plus channels for $22.50 a month, Olson said.

Dish Network is not the first DBS provider to offer local programming to Las Vegas dish owners. Direct TV also carries local affiliates.

But Olson doesn't view Direct TV, the largest DBS provider, as competition for Dish Network, the second-largest provider.

"As an industry, we (DBS) have about 19 percent of the total television households in the country. Cable has just under 80 percent," he said. "Our competition has been cable."

Before Congress stepped in to allow DBS to retransmit local signals, Olson described DBS industry's plight as "having a newsstand in downtown and not being able to sell your newspaper.

"This allows us as an industry to level the playing field," he said.