Compromise STELAR Passes In House & Senate

dfergie

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John Eggerton

The House today (November 19) unanimously passed STELAR, the compromise satellite reauthorization bill (HR 5728).

The bill reauthorizes (for another five years) the satellite compulsory license allowing the importation of distant network TV signals into markets without those affiliates and affects about 1.5 million satellite subs. The bill must pass the Senate and be signed by the President before December 31 or the license expires, as does the FCC's authority to enforce good faith retransmission consent negotiations.

The House unanimously passed its own version of the bill earlier this year, but that has been merged with a Senate version that passed out of committee on that side of the Congress.

But the compromise version does a lot more than that, including instituting various "consumer protections in retransmission consent" that had been sought by cable operators. During House consideration of the bill, Republicans and Democrats called them targeted, pro-consumer reforms that will help the video marketplace.

For one, it prevents coordinated retransmission consent negotiations among noncommonly owned TV stations in a market, expanding on the FCC's decision earlier this year to disallow coordinated retrans among the Top Four stations in those markets. It also prevents broadcasters from preventing the importation of significantly viewed stations into their markets.

multichannel.com
 
http://www.multichannel.com/news/technology/compromise-stelar-passes-house/385700

The full article link....


Does this allow Distant Nets to be accessed in significantly viewed areas? (i.e. like I used to be able to do.... where I could subscribe to both Philly and New York broadcast nets? I am 46 miles from NYC and 62 miles from Philly and would like to be able to view both sets of nets for news and sports (my wife is an Eagles fan and has been unable to see any games not shown at night on National broadcasts).
 
STELAR Passes Senate

The vote was on a bipartisan bill that had already passsed the House on a voice vote Wednesday (Nov. 19), so once the President signs it, it will be the law.

The bill renews for five years the compulsory license that allows satellite operators to import distant network signals to subscribers lacking a local version. It also sunsets the FCC ban on integrated set-tops, makes several retransmission consent reforms, and reauthorizes the FCC's ability to enforce good faith retrans negotiations.

multichannel.com
 
http://www.multichannel.com/news/technology/compromise-stelar-passes-house/385700

The full article link....


Does this allow Distant Nets to be accessed in significantly viewed areas? (i.e. like I used to be able to do.... where I could subscribe to both Philly and New York broadcast nets? I am 46 miles from NYC and 62 miles from Philly and would like to be able to view both sets of nets for news and sports (my wife is an Eagles fan and has been unable to see any games not shown at night on National broadcasts).

True significantly viewed channels can already be utilized, however by definition those are not Distants they are, well, significantly viewed.
This bill just continues to allow Distants where a network is not operating in a DMA. It does not allow a second same network if you are in a white area (Which is outrageous) and does not allow importing a Distant if there is a dispute.
I will point out under the significantly viewed, if there is a dispute DISH or Direct can bring in a true significantly viewed to replace it. Unless under that circumstance I don't think DISH is using any significantly viewed channels, and since DISH isn't providing Distants the bill for now has no impact on DISH customers. DISH could change their mind.
 
Dish used to run things different as I used to be able to subscribe to the New York DMA channels as well as the Philly and Distant Nets from LA. It was worth it to me as I built a poor man's Sunday Ticket out of it on Sundays for football. It also made things easier when 4 good shows were on in one timeslot and my receivers could record the west coast feeds to eliminate conflicts (which was real useful on Sundays as CBS and Fox show start times on the west coast for never delayed by football that ran long. I was hoping to at least be able to get the Philly stations (I'm surprised the networks fight it as I would be in effect paying double for their channels).
 

WTB 8 or 10 foot dish

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