When will DIRECTV begin to offer local channels in HD?
Wilmington is having to wait awhile. DIRECTV claims that it can deliver local television channels in high-definition (HD) to 89 percent of U.S. television households, and it announced July 1 that it’s adding seven more TV markets this summer. Alas for DIRECTV subscribers, Wilmington isn’t one of them. Robert Mercer, director of public relations for DIRECTV, confirmed that the Port City isn’t on the network’s HD launch schedule for 2009. You can get local TV stations in Southeastern North Carolina on DIRECTV, Mercer explained — just not in HD. DIRECTV already delivers local HD channels in Raleigh/Durham, Charlotte, Greensboro, Winston-Salem and Myrtle Beach, S.C., and it will add Columbia, S.C. by September in the new expansion. Why the delay? Part of the answer might lie with the relatively small size of Wilmington’s TV market (we rank 134th out of roughly 210 markets in the USA, according to Nielsen Media Research), and our relative isolation. (Not that many good-sized cities are clos
