I think it was Dish's call to have it that way, if I'm not mistaken.
Boneheaded move of ever if that was/is the case. If it was all automatic, even in this less-than-perfect state, they could have pimped this on their commercials, and probably gotten a ton more subscribers.
Yes, I know of a lot of people holding onto Comcast for the sole reason now of a true Local. It used to be because you didn't get Local channels, too. Now it's just a Local on the 8s.