Satellite TV Hearing Creates Controversy in Congress RE: SHVERA
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New Version Of SHVERA Is Must-Pass Legislation: Boucher
Retransmission-Consent Battles Also Addressed During House Hearing
John Eggerton -- Multichannel News, 2/24/2009
Source & More: Multichannel News
Retransmission-Consent Battles Also Addressed During House Hearing
John Eggerton -- Multichannel News, 2/24/2009
Source & More: Multichannel News
E* + D* ask for rural incentives
Yahoo! News - DirecTV, DISH ask U.S. lawmakers for rural incentives by Reuters: Yahoo! Tech
Yahoo! News - DirecTV, DISH ask U.S. lawmakers for rural incentives by Reuters: Yahoo! Tech
So even D* is admitting that locals are demanding X3 fee increases. This is obviously an effort to recoup declining ad revenues. So they are trying to recoup the revenue on the back of Sat customers.
Here is another article.
Ergen: SHVERA Reforms Could Lead To Universal Local-Into-Local By 2010
Dish Network chief talks to Congress about satellite reforms
By John Eggerton -- Broadcasting & Cable, 2/24/2009 8:18:18 AM MT
"The digital age has arrived," says Dish Network Chairman Charlie Ergen, "and the laws need to catch up." That would include not making satellite operators pay to carry any TV stations or, absent that, Congress coming up with a single retransmission consent rate that applies to all broadcasters and pay TV providers. It also means revamping the satellite carriage regime and what constitutes a local signal.
"Treat a monopoly like a monopoly," says Ergen. "Satellite providers already pay a fixed, per-subscriber copyright royalty rate, and we see no reason why a similar concept can't work for retransmission consent."
In prepared testimony for a House hearing on reauthorizing the Satellite Home Viewer Extension and Reauthorization Act (SHVERA), Ergen listed four fixes he says should be made in the law, which essentially provides the rules of the road for satellite delivery of local TV station signals.
Those fixes, says Ergen, would address the problems of 1) consumers unable to get local news and sports from their home state because of the way markets are configured (almost half cross state lines, according to one satellite lobbyist); 2) rural communities not having all four major nets; 3) retrans fights that deprive local consumers of station signals, and 4) must-carry stations with little or no local content, but which satellite operators are required to carry.
Ergen argues that pay TV providers should be able to import neighboring broadcast stations, with consumers getting to make the call about what local means.
For example, in a market that straddles two states, the ABC affiliate may carry local news, or the games of the college in one state, while viewers in that split market would prefer to get the games of a nearby college that happens to be in an adjacent market.
Ergen says that Dish provides local-into-local service in 178 of Nielsen's 210 markets, or about 97% of TV households. In most of the rest, he says, there are three or fewer network affiliates, which makes it uneconomical to serve because viewers won't want the service it is missing, say, the local NBC affiliate, and DISH is prevented from important a nearby NBC affiliate.
To help remedy that, he says, Congress should step in and allow pay TV providers to import stations from adjacent markets. "If broadcasters won't invest in their local communities," he argues, "pay-TV providers should be able to treat a nearby affiliate as the local affiliate."
At a press conference with reporters before his appearance before the House Communications, Tech & Internet Subcommittee, Ergen said that if Congress institute his suggested broad reforms, that the marketplace would drive either his company, or competitor DirecTV to serve virtually all those 210 markets, and by as early as next year. "I would predict that, based on what we're proposing, it is highly likely that you would get all 210 DMA's with all the DBS players without it being mandated by Congress, and you would probably get it by 2010."
Ergen also argues that 1) retransmission consent reform is needed because broadcasters have too much leverage when they can play a multiplying number of multichannel video providers off one another and that the FCC should set a 20-hours-per week minimum of local programming as a threshold for TV stations to get must-carry status, saying satellite operators are forced to carry "hundreds of stations today that have little or
no local content.."
Ergen: SHVERA Reforms Could Lead To Universal Local-Into-Local By 2010
Dish Network chief talks to Congress about satellite reforms
By John Eggerton -- Broadcasting & Cable, 2/24/2009 8:18:18 AM MT
"The digital age has arrived," says Dish Network Chairman Charlie Ergen, "and the laws need to catch up." That would include not making satellite operators pay to carry any TV stations or, absent that, Congress coming up with a single retransmission consent rate that applies to all broadcasters and pay TV providers. It also means revamping the satellite carriage regime and what constitutes a local signal.
"Treat a monopoly like a monopoly," says Ergen. "Satellite providers already pay a fixed, per-subscriber copyright royalty rate, and we see no reason why a similar concept can't work for retransmission consent."
In prepared testimony for a House hearing on reauthorizing the Satellite Home Viewer Extension and Reauthorization Act (SHVERA), Ergen listed four fixes he says should be made in the law, which essentially provides the rules of the road for satellite delivery of local TV station signals.
Those fixes, says Ergen, would address the problems of 1) consumers unable to get local news and sports from their home state because of the way markets are configured (almost half cross state lines, according to one satellite lobbyist); 2) rural communities not having all four major nets; 3) retrans fights that deprive local consumers of station signals, and 4) must-carry stations with little or no local content, but which satellite operators are required to carry.
Ergen argues that pay TV providers should be able to import neighboring broadcast stations, with consumers getting to make the call about what local means.
For example, in a market that straddles two states, the ABC affiliate may carry local news, or the games of the college in one state, while viewers in that split market would prefer to get the games of a nearby college that happens to be in an adjacent market.
Ergen says that Dish provides local-into-local service in 178 of Nielsen's 210 markets, or about 97% of TV households. In most of the rest, he says, there are three or fewer network affiliates, which makes it uneconomical to serve because viewers won't want the service it is missing, say, the local NBC affiliate, and DISH is prevented from important a nearby NBC affiliate.
To help remedy that, he says, Congress should step in and allow pay TV providers to import stations from adjacent markets. "If broadcasters won't invest in their local communities," he argues, "pay-TV providers should be able to treat a nearby affiliate as the local affiliate."
At a press conference with reporters before his appearance before the House Communications, Tech & Internet Subcommittee, Ergen said that if Congress institute his suggested broad reforms, that the marketplace would drive either his company, or competitor DirecTV to serve virtually all those 210 markets, and by as early as next year. "I would predict that, based on what we're proposing, it is highly likely that you would get all 210 DMA's with all the DBS players without it being mandated by Congress, and you would probably get it by 2010."
Ergen also argues that 1) retransmission consent reform is needed because broadcasters have too much leverage when they can play a multiplying number of multichannel video providers off one another and that the FCC should set a 20-hours-per week minimum of local programming as a threshold for TV stations to get must-carry status, saying satellite operators are forced to carry "hundreds of stations today that have little or
no local content.."
So does this mean the DMA that directly borders me I'll soon be able to get their channels hopefully?
If we're depending on congress, then we might as well just bend over and grab our ankles.
My local cable here in Penn Yan, NY used to carry three sets of locals. Rochester, NY (my DMA) as well as Syracuse and Elmira-Corning. They dropped the Elmira-Corning last month but still carry Syracuse. Yet Dish will not allow me to watch Syracuse and Rochester at the same time.
It's not Dish or Direct's fault that you can't get what locals you choose to or however many you choose to. Thank your congressman or woman and their continued support of outdated, monopolistic laws and local broadcast stations.
Man how I miss the days of having both the West coast locals and the East coast locals. Even though they were California and New York stations, they were 1000 times better than the crap that I get for locals now, oh yeah and those really aren't local since they are 50 miles away and takes either a Sat or a 50ft antennae tower to pick them up. But those outdated laws somehow say a station that is 50 miles away from me is my local. Yeah right.
Hmm, I hope they get what their asking for. Sounds like near enough bandwidth may be cleared just from the ability not have to carry "must carry" infomercial and religious channels.
with uncle sammy buying/altering mortgages, when is he goin to step in and use gov't satellites to give free tv to everyone with income under $250,000. Everyone else can pay $10,000 for their tv programming.
totally kidding, but with all the regulating they might as well offer it themselves.
pfan
totally kidding, but with all the regulating they might as well offer it themselves.
pfan
Charles Ergen testifies before Congress Re: SHVERA
Charles Ergen testifies before Congress Re: reauth of SHVERA
Charles Ergin testified before Congress on 2/24 at the Subcommittee on Communications, Technology, and the Internet Committee on Energy and Commerce regarding the Reauthorization of the Satellite Home Viewer Extension and Reauthorization Act. He makes some interesting points.
Of particular interest regarding retransmission agreements:
"On retrans reform – a broadcaster used to negotiate with a single cable company and the leverage was relatively equal. But, today, DISH customers are held hostage, as broadcasters play their local monopoly off multiple pay-TV providers. In 2008 alone, consumers lost programming in approximately 15 percent of our markets because of retrans disputes. This is a huge increase over prior years, and the problem keeps getting worse. Today, stations in seven of our markets remain down because of unreasonable demands from Fisher Communications. Yet broadcasters provide the same content for free on the Internet and to those lucky enough to live within the shrinking areas of digital over-the-air coverage.
Because the broadcasters got their spectrum for free, I still think retrans should be free – but I understand I’m in the minority on that. So, first option, create a national retrans rate, which would apply to all broadcasters and all pay-TV providers. Treat a monopoly like a monopoly. Satellite providers already pay a fixed, per-subscriber copyright royalty rate, and I see no reason why a similar concept can’t work for retrans. Or, second option, create an actual market. If a broadcaster threatens to drop programming, pay-TV providers should be able to bring in a nearby affiliate to fill the gap. Consumers should never have to wonder what happened to Sunday Night Football."
Full testimony here:
http://energycommerce.house.gov/Pres...mony_ergen.pdf
Charles Ergen testifies before Congress Re: reauth of SHVERA
Charles Ergin testified before Congress on 2/24 at the Subcommittee on Communications, Technology, and the Internet Committee on Energy and Commerce regarding the Reauthorization of the Satellite Home Viewer Extension and Reauthorization Act. He makes some interesting points.
Of particular interest regarding retransmission agreements:
"On retrans reform – a broadcaster used to negotiate with a single cable company and the leverage was relatively equal. But, today, DISH customers are held hostage, as broadcasters play their local monopoly off multiple pay-TV providers. In 2008 alone, consumers lost programming in approximately 15 percent of our markets because of retrans disputes. This is a huge increase over prior years, and the problem keeps getting worse. Today, stations in seven of our markets remain down because of unreasonable demands from Fisher Communications. Yet broadcasters provide the same content for free on the Internet and to those lucky enough to live within the shrinking areas of digital over-the-air coverage.
Because the broadcasters got their spectrum for free, I still think retrans should be free – but I understand I’m in the minority on that. So, first option, create a national retrans rate, which would apply to all broadcasters and all pay-TV providers. Treat a monopoly like a monopoly. Satellite providers already pay a fixed, per-subscriber copyright royalty rate, and I see no reason why a similar concept can’t work for retrans. Or, second option, create an actual market. If a broadcaster threatens to drop programming, pay-TV providers should be able to bring in a nearby affiliate to fill the gap. Consumers should never have to wonder what happened to Sunday Night Football."
Full testimony here:
http://energycommerce.house.gov/Pres...mony_ergen.pdf
Merged and renamed...
This thread is largely on the same subject, too:
http://www.satelliteguys.us/dish-network-forum/166098-e-d-ask-rural-incentives.html
