{"id":91038,"date":"2019-12-25T17:00:35","date_gmt":"2019-12-25T17:00:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/denver-pbs-coming-to-satellite-viewers-in-southwest-colorado\/"},"modified":"2019-12-25T17:00:35","modified_gmt":"2019-12-25T17:00:35","slug":"denver-pbs-coming-to-satellite-viewers-in-southwest-colorado","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/denver-pbs-coming-to-satellite-viewers-in-southwest-colorado\/","title":{"rendered":"Denver PBS coming to satellite viewers in Southwest Colorado"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

On Thursday, Rocky Mountain Public Media announced that <a href=\"http:\/\/www.rmpbs.org\/home\/\">Rocky Mountain PBS<\/a> will be available for the first time to DIRECTV customers in La Plata County, and to DISH customers in both La Plata and Montezuma counties.
On Thursday, Rocky Mountain Public Media announced that <a href=\"http:\/\/www.rmpbs.org\/home\/\">Rocky Mountain PBS<\/a> will be available for the first time to DIRECTV customers in La Plata County, and to DISH customers in both La Plata and Montezuma counties.<\/span>Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald file<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Southwest Coloradans received a stocking stuffer on Christmas Eve: agreements with satellite television providers to carry Denver\u2019s Public Broadcasting Service affiliate, Rocky Mountain PBS.<\/p>\n

But the big present \u2013 satellite pickup of Denver commercial network affiliates for ABC, CBS and NBC \u2013 remains an elusive gift that won\u2019t be in Santa\u2019s bag this year.<\/p>\n

On Tuesday, Rocky Mountain Public Media announced that Rocky Mountain PBS<\/a> will be available for the first time to DirecTV customers in La Plata County, and to DISH Network customers in both La Plata and Montezuma counties.<\/p>\n

Rocky Mountain PBS is now available in standard definition on channel 15 through satellite provider DirecTV and the Denver PBS affiliate should become available, also on standard definition, via DISH within the next two months, said Alex Forsett, RMPBS western Colorado regional manager, in a news release.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a big step forward for public television and Colorado programming in La Plata and Montezuma counties, where we\u2019ve long been considered part of the Albuquerque market and, as a result, orphans in our home state,\u201d said James Foster, chairman emeritus of the Rocky Mountain PBS board of directors and a La Plata County resident.<\/p>\n

Rocky Mountain PBS\u2019 national, state and local programming will continue to be made available through local cable providers, as well as broadcast by KRMU on channel 20.1 in Durango.<\/p>\n

Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser, who has met with federal officials in Washington, D.C., in an effort to bring Denver TV to La Plata and Montezuma counties, said: \u201cResidents in La Plata and Montezuma counties have worked for years to bring in-state television programming to southwestern Colorado. During my visits there, citizens have emphasized how incredibly important this issue is to them.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added, \u201cToday, we are taking an important first step with this announcement that DirecTV and DISH are now providing Rocky Mountain PBS to its customers.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rocky Mountain Public Media is Colorado\u2019s largest statewide, member-supported, multimedia organization and the parent company of Rocky Mountain PBS, KUVO Jazz and The Drop. Rocky Mountain Public Media has more than 90,000 members representing every county in Colorado and reaches 98% of the state\u2019s residents through television, radio and digital platforms.<\/p>\n

Foster added, \u201cWe\u2019ve been working for this, together with our elected officials at both the federal and state levels, even before I joined the board in 2008, and hundreds if not thousands of Durango residents have signed petitions and written letters to the FCC on our behalf.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mark Cornetta, president and general manager of KUSA, the Denver affiliate of NBC, said yearslong discussions between Denver affiliates for the major networks and satellite providers continue in an effort to provide Southwest Colorado with in-state commercial television affiliates via satellite providers. However, no agreement has been reached.<\/p>\n

La Plata and Montezuma counties are dubbed \u201corphan counties\u201d \u2013 receiving out-of-state network affiliates because they are in the Albuquerque Nielson Media Research designated market area.<\/p>\n

Cornetta said the only programming owned by the local affiliates is locally produced programs from Denver and the Front Range, and that programming was offered to satellite providers years ago, but satellite providers have declined to carry the local shows on their systems in La Plata and Montezuma counties.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve offered to allow them to carry our local programming. That\u2019s the only programming we have rights to. We\u2019ve offered that programming for years, and they have declined, and we have not been able to change their minds on that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Efforts to reach DirecTV and DISH Network were unsuccessful on Christmas Eve.<\/p>\n

Weiser said he will continue to work with satellite providers and commercial stations to bring their services to Southwest Colorado.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe still have work to do with satellite providers and commercial stations, but this is important progress to celebrate,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

parmijo@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Network and DirecTV to offer Rocky Mountain PBS in La Plata, Montezuma counties<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":91039,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[28,475,60,29,2460],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-91038","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-headlines","tag-la-plata-county-colorado","tag-montezuma-county","tag-newsletter","tag-television-industry"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91038","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=91038"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91038\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/91039"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=91038"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=91038"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=91038"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=91038"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}