What are the odds this bill will pass?

[jacobm69]

I recently read some news about this proposed legislation; and, since i unfortunately live in an unserved DMA (Salisbury, MD) i really hope it passes. Has anything like this been tried before and if not, what are the odds it will pass?

Representative Bart Stupak's (MI01)- Stupak Bill Would Require Satellite Companies to Carry Local Signals in All Markets



WASHINGTON – U.S. Congressman Bart Stupak (D-Menominee) has introduced legislation to require satellite television providers to carry local television broadcasts in all 210 Designated Market Areas (DMAs) within one year of enactment. H.R. 927, the Satellite Consumers’ Right to Local Channels Act, would ensure consumers in rural markets – where a large percentage of homes are served by satellite – have access to local channels....

 

[Ramen]

So... what if the stations take advantage of the law and demand DISH pay them 100 kajillion dollars per day?

Will you put ketchup on that hotdog and stomp on it?

 

[Laddyboy]

Hard to do if there's insufficient transponder space to do so. Plus, the effing government has no business telling a company what products or services they have to offer. This SOB isn't going to be paying the bill but will force the rest of us to do so. If you can't get your locals via antenna, there are other options. Getting a TV signal is not a right that I've ever found in the Constitution.

 

[jacobm69]

i prefer mustard.....

I would hope this would not be the case, but could definately see that happening. One would think that there would be provisions in the law to prevent this, but with our government it is hard to tell.

 

[Andrewwski]

So... what if the stations take advantage of the law and demand DISH pay them 100 kajillion dollars per day?

Will you put ketchup on that hotdog and stomp on it?

I'd assume it's like the must-carry laws for cable. Only applies if station does not charge a fee.

 

[andyin137]

What I can see Happening

I recently read some news about this proposed legislation; and, since i unfortunately live in an unserved DMA (Salisbury, MD) i really hope it passes. Has anything like this been tried before and if not, what are the odds it will pass?

Representative Bart Stupak's (MI01)- Stupak Bill Would Require Satellite Companies to Carry Local Signals in All Markets



WASHINGTON – U.S. Congressman Bart Stupak (D-Menominee) has introduced legislation to require satellite television providers to carry local television broadcasts in all 210 Designated Market Areas (DMAs) within one year of enactment. H.R. 927, the Satellite Consumers’ Right to Local Channels Act, would ensure consumers in rural markets – where a large percentage of homes are served by satellite – have access to local channels....

Although it would be a great Idea to be able to carry all market local channels satelitte companies would problably argue it would take up to much channel capacity and in order to do so everyone would receive straight across the board a price increase for they could have the ability to carry.
In the short term The satelitte companies would just have your DMA changed to the nearest market.
But I do feel for the people who live in between DMAs,there needs to be away to get your closest Local channels because you need local news in case of an area wide or even National emergency..Keep your fingers crossed.

 

[DishSubLA]

I thought satellite had until 2012 to do this as per FCC. Is this rushed bill an attempt to damage satellite (by cable, et al.)?

 

[Claude Greiner]

Dish can always put the unserved markets up on FSS on a 121 or a 105 SuperDish.

They got 184 DMA's right now, with only 210 DMA's available they are only missing channels in 26 markets!

Figure 7 channels per market, and thats 182 channels. 12 Channels per Transponder, and they only need 15 transponders. It can very easily be put on FSS, on a SuperDish 105 or 121.

However I think it really comes down to cost, as there is not really a whole bunch of customers that are un-served. Out of a few thousand activations last year, I can think of maybe 5 customers who made a stink over not having locals.

Off the top of my head there is 1 county in Northern Michigan unserved, a few areas in West Virginia, a few areas in Northern Wyoming, and some areas in the mountains in California.

 

[No_Brains]

i would love to see this happen.. i live in bluefield, wv and dish does not have the local channels for us either. i have an antenna for WVVA NBC which i cant even get a good signal from them.. if i want to see network programming i would have to get lifeline cable from Comcast which i dont want to do b/c that would cost be about $20 month just for that. i love dish network now, but if they had to get the local channels that would make me even happier, even though that the local channels for this area are crap. WVVA NBC dont even carry real news for the Bluefield area. but i would just love to have them for the network programming

 

[whatchel1]

Doesn't have to be HD

If you read the bill you will notice that the channels do not have to be HD. So they could put them up in an SD and have 15 per transponder.

 

[Zero327]

I recently read some news about this proposed legislation; and, since i unfortunately live in an unserved DMA (Salisbury, MD) i really hope it passes. Has anything like this been tried before and if not, what are the odds it will pass?

Representative Bart Stupak's (MI01)- Stupak Bill Would Require Satellite Companies to Carry Local Signals in All Markets



WASHINGTON – U.S. Congressman Bart Stupak (D-Menominee) has introduced legislation to require satellite television providers to carry local television broadcasts in all 210 Designated Market Areas (DMAs) within one year of enactment. H.R. 927, the Satellite Consumers’ Right to Local Channels Act, would ensure consumers in rural markets – where a large percentage of homes are served by satellite – have access to local channels....

Unlikely. Encoding and decoding costs alone would be enough to kill this bill. Leave it to someone named "Bart"...

 

[terpsmandan]

Don't forget 4 markets in New York. Binghamton, Elmira-Corning, Utica, and Watertown. I may be wrong but I cannot think of any other state that has so many markets unserved by Dish.

 

[digiblur]

One of the big reasons some markets are unserved are due to the rules from Congress themselves. Let's take the Lake Charles, LA market. They only have NBC, FOX and PBS. Since they can't bring in CBS and ABC like the cable companies can what's the point in serving that market? It's not going to bring in more subs.

 

[MikeD-C05]

One of the big reasons some markets are unserved are due to the rules from Congress themselves. Let's take the Lake Charles, LA market. They only have NBC, FOX and PBS. Since they can't bring in CBS and ABC like the cable companies can what's the point in serving that market? It's not going to bring in more subs.

Maybe that provision should be included in the bill so it passes. If you don't have all 5 networks in your dma , you can add the missing networks from the nearest dma. So for example, in Lake Charles , they could use the ABC,CBS,CW and PBS from the Beaumont,Tx area ,65 miles from them. This would be a help to DISH if this bill included this provision. You would think that DISH would work to lobby for this, so they would add the rest of the markets and it would be worth the investment.

 

[Skip06]

Since I'm from an edge of a DMA with 1 channel (ABC) which really can't be picked up analogue and not at all digital OTA. That bill is worthless here. I wish they'd pass a bill to allow the nearest full DMA or state capitol.

 

[dishcomm]

I recently read some news about this proposed legislation; and, since i unfortunately live in an unserved DMA (Salisbury, MD) i really hope it passes. Has anything like this been tried before and if not, what are the odds it will pass?

Representative Bart Stupak's (MI01)- Stupak Bill Would Require Satellite Companies to Carry Local Signals in All Markets



WASHINGTON – U.S. Congressman Bart Stupak (D-Menominee) has introduced legislation to require satellite television providers to carry local television broadcasts in all 210 Designated Market Areas (DMAs) within one year of enactment. H.R. 927, the Satellite Consumers’ Right to Local Channels Act, would ensure consumers in rural markets – where a large percentage of homes are served by satellite – have access to local channels....

In a perfect world this would work. But it isn't that easy. Transponder space must be available. Plus the money must be made available.
It was never the intention of satellite ocmpanies to cover 100% of DMA's. Nor is the delivery available. Perhaps in due time the satcos can cover some of the larger DMA's not covered. But single county DMA's or those that have less than 10,000 people in them will just have to wait.
Legislation such as this is frightening. It implies that television over satellite equipment is an entitlement. It isn't.
This current administration is expanding the definition of "entitlement". Down this road we evolve into a nation where everyone becomes entitled to their every desire at the stroke of a bureaucratic pen.

 

[Juan]

Don't forget 4 markets in New York. Binghamton, Elmira-Corning, Utica, and Watertown. I may be wrong but I cannot think of any other state that has so many markets unserved by Dish.

most of those markets don't have all of the "big 4" It would be stupid for e* to uplink them now till they solve that issue

 

[dishcomm]

Maybe that provision should be included in the bill so it passes. If you don't have all 5 networks in your dma , you can add the missing networks from the nearest dma. So for example, in Lake Charles , they could use the ABC,CBS,CW and PBS from the Beaumont,Tx area ,65 miles from them. This would be a help to DISH if this bill included this provision. You would think that DISH would work to lobby for this, so they would add the rest of the markets and it would be worth the investment.

Good point.

NOw I will play devil's advocate
Let's suppose for a moment this comes to fruition. So what would the law say about Distant Nets? Because the "distant" in Distant Nets had notning to do with geography.
So if the folks in these markets will be "more equal" than folks in other markets.

 

[hyperguy]

Originally Posted by terpsmandan
Don't forget 4 markets in New York. Binghamton, Elmira-Corning, Utica, and Watertown. I may be wrong but I cannot think of any other state that has so many markets unserved by Dish.


They could solve this by combining Corning's Fox station with Elmira's NBC and ABC and Binghamtons CBS one big dma serving all 4 networks

 

[Justsuern]

Hard to do if there's insufficient transponder space to do so. Plus, the effing government has no business telling a company what products or services they have to offer. This SOB isn't going to be paying the bill but will force the rest of us to do so. If you can't get your locals via antenna, there are other options. Getting a TV signal is not a right that I've ever found in the Constitution.

Here, here. I soooo agree with you. The government needs to stay out of everyone's business. Other than national security, the federal government should sit back and shut up.