Viewers may soon be seeing UGA red instead of Clemson orange
The Federal Communications Commission Tuesday ruled in favor of a petition from Franklin County officials to switch from the Greenville-Spartanburg television market to Atlanta.
The market modification gives TV viewers in Franklin County access to news, sports and other local programming out of Atlanta.
Orphan counties
Counties served by television stations in states outside their own are considered “orphan” counties. In Northeast Georgia those counties include Franklin, Stephens, Elbert, and Hart. Those counties currently receive satellite programming based in South Carolina rather than Georgia.
In 2014, Congress passed legislation that allows orphan counties to petition the FCC to receive in-state programming.
Sports coverage is one of the reasons Franklin County requested the switch to the Atlanta market. Its petition claims Franklin County viewers were “forced to watch the Carolina Panthers over their in-state team, Atlanta Falcons.” The petition also points out that, although UGA is just 35 miles away from the county seat, “during UGA’s path to the National Championship game, the local broadcasts were filled with Clemson news and sports updates.”
Residents who signed the petition also complained of the lack of local high school sports, in-state election coverage, traffic and weather.
Four television stations in North and South Carolina that currently serve Franklin County opposed the petition.
FCC ruling
In issuing its ruling, the FCC said it was “persuaded by the overall strength of the evidence” that a sufficient connection exists between Franklin County and Atlanta TV stations. The panel ordered Franklin County to be added to the local markets of WSB-TV, WAGA, WXIA, and WGCL on both DISH and DIRECTV.
Barring any further challenges, that could occur within the next 90 days.
Stephens County is now in the process of preparing its own market modification petition for the FCC.
