Well, timing is everything....
,,,so think of it this way
....while MSFT is gapping down,,
...DISH will be gapping UP!!
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03:48 PM ET 11/05/99
Clinton administration blasts satellite TV bill
WASHINGTON, Nov 5 (Reuters) - The White House has major
problems with almost-completed legislation in Congress to allow
satellite television services to carry local TV programming,
according to a letter released on Friday by the Clinton
administration.
In a letter to lawmakers, Commerce Secretary William Daley
said parts of the proposal could raise prices for consumers and
make it more difficult for satellite TV firms like EchoStar
Communications Corp. and Hughes Electronics Corp.'s
DirecTV to compete with land-based cable services.
Instead of helping satellite firms compete, some parts of
the bill "appear to create economic and regulatory
disincentives for providing local-into-local carriage of
broadcast signals, to limit consumer programming choices, to
permit discriminatory conduct and to increase the potential
cost of satellite programming," Daley wrote.
But leading Republicans said the administration's
complaints are too late to influence the shape of the bill.
"All the White House has to do is veto the bill and we'll
just forward all the phone calls from thousands of irate
consumers to them over the holidays," said a spokesman for
Louisiana Republican Billy Tauzin, a leading participant in the
negotiations.
Lawmakers are almost finished with their proposal to allow
satellite firms for the first time to carry local TV stations
for their subscribers in each local market.
The bill was originally intended to bolster satellite TV as
a competitor to cable monopolies, which recently saw federal
regulations phased out and have raised prices at more than
three times the rate of inflation over the past three years.
But an intense lobbying campaign by television broadcasters
convinced lawmakers to add a number of limitations on satellite
TV firms carrying local channels.
For example, the proposal would allow TV stations to charge
satellite firms more than they charge cable companies for
carrying their programming.
The plan also would require satellite firms to supply free
over-the-air TV antennas to hundreds of thousands of customers
who had programming from major television networks cut off
under a court order.
Even if the bill became law, satellite firms would require
several years to phase in local coverage. And because the bill
would require that a satellite service carry all stations in
each local market if it carried even one station, the companies
have said they have only enough channel capacity to serve the
largest 50 to 70 U.S. cities.
Daley's letter called the free antenna provision an
"unreasonable and unjustified burden."
((Aaron Pressman, Washington newsroom |
