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Technology Stocks : Echostar Comm. -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Sly_ who wrote (1203)	11/29/1999 5:01:00 PM
From: Joseph F. Trombetta	Respond to of 1394

Monday November 29 4:22 PM ET Clinton Signs Law to Put Local Shows on Satellite TV WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Clinton on Monday signed into law a measure allowing satellite television services to offer their subscribers for the first time hundreds of local broadcast stations. The two leading services, Hughes Electronics Corp.'s (NYSE:GMH - news) DirecTV and EchoStar Communications Corp. (NasdaqNM:DISH - news) responded by immediately making available local channels in a few of the largest markets like New York and Los Angeles, with plans to roll out ``local into local' service in the 20 largest markets soon. El Segundo, Calif.-based DirecTV, the market leader with 7.8 million customers, said it would offer immediately local channels in New York and Los Angeles, adding San Francisco, Washington D.C., Denver, Detroit and Miami soon. Littleton, Colorado-based EchoStar, with 3.3 million subscribers, said it had begun offering local channels in 13 cities, including New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Boston and Phoenix. Another 20 cities could be added if negotiations with station owners are successful, the company said. By allowing satellite firms to carry local channels, the law aims to provide greater competition to land-based cable operators that already carry all local stations. Consumer groups said the law could help curb cable service price increases that have run at more than three times the rate of inflation in recent years. But they also warned that some provisions of the law added at the behest of television station owners could hold back the competitive benefits. ``The law will definitely help satellite companies offer local TV channels to dish owners in the biggest cities but it fails to ensure that these channels will still be available to them six months from now,' said Gene Kimmelman, co-director of the Washington office of Consumers Union. While the law allows satellite firms to carry local channels immediately, the companies must negotiate terms with stations owners within six months. Cable operators generally pay little to nothing to station owners, but the broadcasters have greater leverage with satellite firms that control much less of the audience in most markets. Lawmakers considered but rejected a provision that would have prohibited station owners from charging satellite companies more than they charge cable systems. The law also requires that within two years, a satellite service must carry all local channels in a market where it carries any local channels. The broadcasters and the major networks, CBS Corp. (NYSE:CBS - news), General Electric Co.'s (NYSE:GE - news) NBC, News Corp.'s (NCP.AX) Fox and Walt Disney Co.'s (NYSE:DIS - news) ABC, demanded so-called must carry rules that already apply to cable operators. That forced satellite firms, which have limited transmission capacity from their space craft, to scale back their planned local offerings. Lawmakers at the last minute dropped a plan to offer $1.25 billion of government-backed loans to encourage companies to build new systems to offer local stations to satellite subscribers in smaller markets. Senate Banking Committee chairman and Texas Republican Phil Gramm knocked out the loan program, which he termed a give-away to big business, but lawmakers agreed to revisit the issue early next year. The law signed on Monday also prevents a court-ordered cut-off of network programs from a few major network stations. A federal court in Miami last year found that satellite companies had illegally signed up millions of customers for distant network signals which were only supposed to go to customers with inadequate over-the-air reception. Under the law, people living about 35 to 70 miles from local TV stations would not lose distant network shows for five years. People living farther away were not affected by the court's order and should continue to receive the shows. Shares of Hughes were up 5-3/16 to 90-1/16 on the New York Stock Exchange. EchoStar shares fell 3-1/4 to 69-1/4 on the Nasdaq