It's definitely a technical issue. People in MS & AL are in FS South territory and FS New Orleans is an alternate of FS Southwest. So if we don't have access to FSSW we can't get access to FSNO, but adding the Sports Pack grants us access to FSSW therefor opening up the FSNO in the Hornets territory. Directv needs to modify the zip codes accordingly to allow MS/AL access to FSSW.
I must say that DirecTV customer service has been a pleasure dealing with. It is very refreshing to deal with a company that has not outsourced its customer service to save a buck.