I can't see this being a big feature. Personally I don't have much interest in traffic and weather and local news from, say, El Paso. Unless of course, I have friends there, am travelling there, or used to live there.

A nice feature but not a necessity.

In a rural area, can only get NY and LA stations, but at least you can watch network programming at both east coast and west coast time. Otherwise, cannot get the news, etc out of San Antonio, or Odessa, etc.

Like the cable company will let you watch anything but the locals for your zip code, since that's all they can sqeeze onto the analog portion of the feed. All you have to do with satellite is call the provider, and the channel's unlocked inside of 15 minutes with no jerking around with equipment.

Not as much anymore due to changes in spotbeams, but still available if you jump through a hoop or two.

I find this a great aspect of satellite. We are able to watch *most* Giants games, even though we are in Texas, due to the satellite advantage.Also enjoy keeping up with New York area, the news and weather and all, since my sister and her family still live over there.