March 11, 1999 17:46
U.S. House panel maintains cut-off of satellite TV
By Aaron Pressman
WASHINGTON, March 11 (Reuters) - A House Judiciary subcommittee on Thursday approved a bill to allow satellite television services to carry local stations but without restoring service to millions of subscribers facing a loss of network programming.
One day after the Senate Commerce Committee sided with consumers and passed a bill preventing the court-ordered cut-off of network shows to more than two million satellite customers, the House panel adopted legislation that would instead require satellite firms to purchase rooftop antennas for most customers losing the network shows.
A U.S. District Court in Miami last year found that millions of satellite customers were receiving network programming illegally. The court ordered that about 750,000 customers be turned off Feb. 28 and another 1.5 million at the end of April.
In Congress, the dispute has pitted the interests of consumers who subscribed to satellite TV 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.
House lawmakers on Thursday sided with broadcasters.
But the bill must now go to the full Judiciary Committee and be reconciled with a very different approach being pursued by the House Commerce Committee. Senate committees are also expected to favor conflicting approaches.
Under the proposal passed on Thursday, satellite services would be prohibited from sending so-called distant network stations to most people. Only customers living in areas not served by local stations, known as white areas, would be eligible unless a local station granted a customer living closer a waiver.
Satellite services would be allowed to retransmit local network stations to their customers in each local market. Number 2 satellite service Echostar Communications Corp. has announced plans to offer local service in larger cities but market leader and Hughes Electronics Corp. unit DirecTV has not.
The subcommittee approved an amendment from Virginia Republican Bob Goodlatte to deal with people facing the the court-ordered end of service.
For the majority of people, those living closest to TV stations in areas known as grade A, the amendment required satellite firms to buy customers rooftop antennas.
For the remaining people who live an intermediate distance from television stations in areas known as grade B, the amendment would have virtually no effect, delaying the cut-off only until federal regulators promulgate rules that have already been announced.
People living in white areas were not affected by the court order
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