TV Q&A: When will new ‘Doc Martin’ episodes air on WQED-TV?

Trib Total Media TV writer Rob Owen answers reader questions every Wednesday at TribLive.com in a column that also appears in the Sunday Tribune-Review.

Q: Do you think “Doc Martin” will ever be on Channel 13 again? Love that show.

-Mary via Facebook

Rob: The ninth season of “Doc Martin” premiered on streaming service Acorn.tv almost a year ago and the expectation was it would be made available to PBS stations in January 2021. But that may change.

“While APT had been advised that the new season would be available in January 2021, the supplier [Acorn.tv] informed us in March that they were revisiting that decision,” said Kerry Taylor of distributor American Public Television. “It is unclear when ‘Doc Martin’ season nine will be available to public television stations. However, APT is doing all we can to facilitate the availability of ‘Doc Martin’ season nine as soon as possible.”

Q: Why did KDKA-TV remove “from downtown Pittsburgh” from their news opening credits?

-Raymond via email

Rob: KDKA-TV general manager Chris Cotugno said the change was made to make it clear the station covers more than Downtown news.

“We handle news in all eight counties in the region in three states,” he said. “We’re covering the entire area, not just Downtown.”

Q: Where did the TV show “Extra” go? It used to be on KDKA-TV at 7:30 p.m. weekdays. Now there’s more news. I called KDKA and all they would say is that news took its place. We enjoyed watching that show. Any idea where it is now?

-Kathy via email

Rob: A 7:30 p.m. KDKA newscast replaced “Extra” in mid-August. “Extra” now airs at 1:37 a.m. weekdays.

Q: I’m an old guy that mostly watches the news on TV. I’ve been with a few satellite TV providers and now have ended up with ATT’s DirecTV.

In the past month the great Ma Bell (ATT) removed the news channels I watched every day — no reason, no warning, just not available on my service: CNN, OANN and BBC. I have what was called the family plan, lowest cost service when I accepted it.

Should I file a complaint with FCC concerning ATT doing this? I think they might be forcing their clients to pay additional to see the present presidential election news.

-Robert, Greensburg

Rob: Cable/satellite contracts always allow the satellite/cable company to make changes to programming packages so a complaint to the FCC is unlikely to do any good.

I have an ancient DirecTV package and BBC America is coming in on Channel 264.

DirecTV has not dropped any news channels so CNN is still at 202.

Also, DirecTV has not dropped OANN (Channel 347), although a free preview ended in July for some older programming packages.

DirecTV’s current package plans show all three channels are available on the least expensive tier. (BBC World News is not on the cheapest tier).

It’s possible Robert has an older programming package so maybe that could account for the missing channels. His best bet is to call DirecTV directly to see if they can explain why the channels are missing or maybe suggest switching to the least expensive, current plan.

Ask TV questions by e-mailing rowen@TribLive.com. Please include your first name and location.