March 10, 1999 18:09
Congress struggles to help satellite TV viewers
By Aaron Pressman
WASHINGTON, March 10 (Reuters) - A Senate panel Wednesday approved a bill to restore network programming to almost one million satellite television subscribers, but the legislation faces strong opposition from the broadcast industry.
The Senate Commerce Committee adopted the proposal authored by its chairman, Arizona Republican John McCain, to restore network signals cut off on Feb. 28 to 750,000 satellite TV subscribers under a court order and to prevent another 1.5 million from losing the shows at the end of April.
Broadcasters vowed to continue their fight as the legislation moves toward a vote by the full Senate where lawmakers who opposed McCain's approach will likely push their objections again.
Similar legislation is bogged down in the House of Representatives, where different committees favor conflicting approaches.
In Wednesday's debate, senators weighed the interests of consumers who subscribed to satellite television expecting the network shows against those of broadcast station owners who say the transmission of only a few network stations in big cities to satellite viewers nationwide has reduced the audience for hundreds of local network affiliates.
Most lawmakers opted for the side of consumers.
"I just don't think you blacken sets -- I don't think you do that in America," West Virginia Democrat John Rockefeller said. "Do not put the illegality of firms before consumers," he added, noting that a court had found satellite services, not consumers had violated the law.
McCain said the bill was critical to help satellite TV services create more competition with land-based cable TV services. "If satellite TV service can't be as stable and competitive as cable TV service, cable TV consumers will find themselves at the mercy of cable TV rate increases," he said.
If enacted, the McCain bill's restoration would last only until the end of the year for most viewers that faced a cut-off. That would give those consumers time to purchase a better antenna to receive network channels over the air or apply for a waiver from their local TV stations if an antenna would not provide adequate reception.
About one-quarter of those facing a cut-off live farther away from TV stations and would be allowed to keep their network programming indefinitely under the bill, although federal regulators would have the authority to force satellite services to black out sports or other programming.
The grandfather provision was among the most controversial in the bill and the committee rejected by a 12 to 8 vote an amendment to limit both categories of subscribers to the year-end cut-off date.
People who live very far from TV stations (in so-called white areas) were not affected by the court-ordered cut-off and could still get distant network signals under the McCain bill.
The bill would not allow new satellite subscribers in either the close or middle distance groups to get distant network channels, however.
Instead, the bill allows satellite services to provide those customers only with network programming from local affiliates in each city. Lawmakers expect the two leading satellite providers, Echostar Communications Corp. and Hughes Electronics Corp.'s DirecTV, will begin providing a much wider range of local network affiliates over the next few years.
The controversy began last year when a federal court sided with broadcasters CBS Corp. and News Corp.'s Fox ruling that more than two million satellite subscribers were getting distant network signals in violation of the 1988 Satellite Home Viewer Act
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