West OK Journal

On November 5th DirecTV stopped offering HD Oklahoma City channels to far western Oklahoma. DirecTV customers still get the Oklahoma City SD channels.

I got a reply from DirecTV support a few days ago explaining the reason for the turn off:

… You do live within the Oklahoma City, OK TV market. However, with our current technology, we can’t provide you with Oklahoma City, OK local channels in HD via satellite. Without getting too technical, here’s the reason why:

We deliver the local channels in HD to the Oklahoma City, OK area via a satellite spot beam, that covers the areas immediately around the city like a spotlight. In zip codes near the outer edges of a “spot beam,” we aren’t able to offer local channels in HD because the beam either won’t reach without significant signal degradation or there is a possibility that another satellite spot beam will overlap and cause interference. Unfortunately, even though you do live within the Oklahoma City, OK TV market as designated by Nielsen Media, you live in a zip code where we are not able to offer HD local channels.

Since you mentioned that you want to get the distant Network channels, please note that DIRECTV has special authorization from ABC, CBS, NBC and FOX to provide their New York or Los Angeles digital (HD) feeds in select areas of the country.

To be eligible for ABC, CBS, FOX, or NBC HD feeds from DIRECTV, you must: 1. Live in an area where the national network owns the local station. 2. Have high-definition DIRECTV equipment. 3. Subscribe to local channels from DIRECTV.

Eligible customers who live in the Eastern or Central time zones will receive New York channels. Mountain or Pacific Time zone customers will receive Los Angeles channels. …

I’ve been running a few tests at my house and I’m able to get some of the Oklahoma City over the air HD channels. Use www.rabbitears.info/search.php to find where you need to point your antenna to get the most OTA channels.