According to several sources, DIRECTV will start offering customers the option to opt out of local channels in their satellite packages. It looks like you could save $12 a month by opting out, and you might have that option as soon as this summer.
I don’t know how popular this option will be. I will say that you can get a lot of prime-time programs through Hulu, Peacock, and Paramount+. But not every city has local news and sports available over streaming. I’m a big believer in local media whether it’s TV, local web sites or even newspapers. There’s an old saying that “all politics is local politics” and I think that it’s never been more important to watch what’s going on in your community.
But, it’s great that you’ll have a choice and it’s a choice that DISH customers have had for some time. There’s just one difference.
Recording local channels on your satellite DVR
This nondescript box is DIRECTV’s AM21, sold between about 2008 and 2014. It connected to DIRECTV standalone receivers and DVRs and let you integrate local TV channels into your DIRECTV guide. It also let you record those channels if you had a DVR.
A few years later, DIRECTV did a limited run of what you see above, the Local Channel Connector or LCC. It did exactly the same thing in a smaller package. It’s compatible with all DIRECTV boxes except Genie 2. (I don’t know if it has been tested with the H26K at this point.) Unfortunately DIRECTV never made these available for retail sale and the only way to get one has been to call DIRECTV and try to get them to send you one for free.
Why we don’t have something like the AM21 and LCC now
DIRECTV’s whole goal in offering customers an over-the-air option was to make sure customers could get channels DIRECTV didn’t yet offer over satellite. Later, they expanded that mission to help customers affected by long-term channel blackouts. But until recently, the feeling at DIRECTV headquarters was that you could get all the local channels you needed from satellite TV and that an antenna wasn’t necessary to get major networks in every city.
However, it’s obvious that DIRECTV has a new spirit since it was spun off from AT&T. The folks there are looking at the way people watch video now and they’re responding. That’s great to know.
So, will we? Will we see a tuner like that?
It’s hard to know if DIRECTV will bring back an over-the-air tuner solution for its receivers and DVRs. The LCC wasn’t a bad option but it did require external power. That’s more because most DIRECTV boxes only put out 250mW or 500mW through their USB ports, rather than the 1 amp or 2 amps you get from most USB ports. Also, the LCC is not supported by Genie 2. This is mostly a driver issue and could be fixed in software if they wanted to do it.
I can’t say if we’ll see a solution like that in the future. I hope we do. It’s a good sign that DISH offers something like that for their Hoppers. It seems to me that you could do something like that using existing off-the-shelf technology and it just becomes a matter of adding software support for it. The folks at DIRECTV are very customer focused and they’re listening to what the market wants. When you have a company like that, you’re going to see great things happen!
