Work Continues On “Orphan County” TV Issue

Stephens County government is continuing steps to try and obtain access to Atlanta television stations for county residents on satellite television.

Tuesday, the county commission approved a letter of feasibility certificate request be sent to DirecTV, LLC.

The letter from the county asks DirecTV to clarify whether or not, or to what extent, the company could provide Atlanta stations to customers in Stephens County.

Stephens County Administrator Phyllis Ayers said she was informed by Franklin County Manager Beth Thomas that this was the first step in the process.

“The next step is to request a feasibility certificate for your county,” said Ayers. “We have patterned a letter after Franklin County’s.”

According to Ayers, each company has its own process, but this is the one for DirecTV.

“This is just an initial step,” said Ayers.

Stephens County, along with Franklin, Hart, and Elbert counties, are known as “orphan counties.”

These are counties that receive local TV stations from another state other than their home state.

In the case of Stephens County, it is receiving stations from South Carolina instead of from Georgia.

In 2015, the Federal Communications Commission announced that it had adopted new rules that allowed modification of satellite television markets to help ensure that satellite operators carry the broadcast stations of most interest to the community after Congress passed an act to that effect in 2014.

The FCC said that law allows the agency to modify, upon the request of a TV station, satellite operator, or county government, a particular station’s local market in order to add or take away communities to better reflect market realities.

FCC officials said that there are a number of factors that come in to whether to allow market modification, including consideration of access to television stations that are located in the same state as the community considered for modification.

There is no word on how long it may take to get such a request officially before the FCC.