Local Channel

You do realize, I hope, that the decisions of which station you can get is largely made by others, and DIRECTV has almost no control of it?  You are assigned a DMA based on your zip code and county.  DIRECTV has to show you the stations assigned for the DMA, no matter how stupid it may seem.  If you switch to your local CATV provider, they should give you the same list of channels. 

Normally one is assigned to a DMA that seems logical.  But sometimes, not.  There are places on the gulf coast that get New Orleans instead of Gulf Port.  There are places in Upstate NY that have really funny things going on.  There's a county in western NC that gets Atlanta, GA stations.  But none of these assignments were made by DIRECTV.

Then who assigns the DMA...I think I would like to shake the cage just a bit...I know we people mean nothing in the long run but the smallest bee in the bonnet can be very irritating.

Hello @ShanJen , we are always working for our customers to have access to their favorite programming.

DMA's (Designated Market Areas) are not determined by us, but by the broadcast centers, based on your zipcode, meaning that for the area you're located, you're getting the DMA established by the channel providers.

Please let us know if you have any other questions.

Camilo, DIRECTV Community Specialist

Here's an article about how DMAs affect local carriage and the exceptions, and how exceptions to the DMAs can be requested by stations or local governments:

https://www.fcc.gov/consumers/guides/receiving-television-broadcast-stations-satellite-tv-companies

@ShanJen recently local channels from some county borders were redistributed, and you might be one of the affected customers.

Please provide us with your zipcode, so we can further take a look into this for you.

Camilo, DIRECTV Community Specialist

@ShanJen Shake the cage? lol. Good luck with that. TV markets/DMA have been assigned for decades now. U aren't going to change that.