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To: George Martin who wrote (17997)	5/21/1999 8:47:00 PM
From: Vendit™	Read Replies (1) of 41369

Senate Would Let Satellites Carry Local TV WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Senate Thursday approved legislation allowing satellite television services to carry local stations for the first time, matching similar legislation adopted by the House last month. Lawmakers moved to make satellite television firms like Hughes Electronics Corp.'s DirecTV and EchoStar Communications Corp. more competitive with land-based cable operators, who can already carry all local stations in every market. The bill, which could be changed in a conference with the House, would allow satellite companies to send local channels to any of their customers, but after 2002 it would require the companies to carry every channel in any market where they offer some channels. The satellite companies have said the ''must carry'' provisions would limit the number of cities where they could offer local channels to only the 60 or 70 largest markets because of limited transmission capacity. But the broadcasting industry had threatened to oppose the legislation if ''must carry'' was not included. The legislation also sought to prevent the court-ordered cutoff of network programming to millions of satellite television customers found to have received the stations in violation of a 1988 law. Under the Satellite Home Viewer Act, satellite companies were permitted to send network shows from a few stations in major cities to customers nationwide who could not get adequate over-the-air reception, as measured by a controversial standard created in the 1950s. A federal court last year found the satellite companies had ignored the limits and improperly signed up millions of customers for distant network channels. The Senate legislation would delay cutoffs of network programming to people living within 35 miles of their television station until Dec. 31. People living farther away would not be cut off until the Federal Communications Commission developed a new test for adequate over-the-air reception. ''Too many satellite dish owners have been forced to endure a confusing and contradictory maze of rules and court orders,'' Sen. Patrick Leahy, Democrat of Vermont and sponsor of the bill, said in a statement. ''With this vote, the Senate has offered dish owners a path out of this maze.''

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