They are playing hard ball and the customers are all getting hurt, I thought Congress was going to help. I think they forgot about the smaller DMAs.
When was the last time congress did anything to help anyone that wasn't politically or $$ motivated? In fact they have and will continue to go out of their way to keep from helping consumers if the lobbing effort is strong enough.
Like anything else in a free market, if any business (TV producers) is going to put an item up for sale to the public, then any part of that "public" should be entitled the opportunity to purchase that item.
If my local store refuses to import and sell me that item, I am free to purchase that item somewhere else and have it delivered to my home.
As long as I am willing to pay the seller's asking price and there is a means to get that item to me, should the seller of that item be able to deny me the right to buy that item?
That's exactly what is happening with network television broadcasts. They choose to distribute their product through local resellers and grant that reseller exclusive rights for a particular territory but that local retailer decides to only market to part of that territory. Meanwhile a neighboring retailer has the same product and IS willing to market it to you but isn't allowed to.
If congress really cared about people's rights, they'd amend SHVERA to allow the satellite distribution of any network signal to any viewer whose local affiliate can't prove their signal reaches and at Grade "A" quality.
If it's going over the public airway, then every person should be entitled to equal, fair market access.