House And Senate Staff May Complete Work On Satellite TV Measure
Negotiators could complete work any day on legislation to empower direct broadcast satellite companies to compete on equal footing with cable companies - although many of the key details are still up in the air. The conference staff has been working late nights to iron out most differences in the House and Senate versions of the bill. Staff is expected to complete work on the remaining issues during a meeting that convened Friday afternoon, although conferees were not expected to sign off on the deal that day. They could, however, do so within a week. Meanwhile, sources said the final package is expected to include federal financial support to satellite companies to ensure that consumer in all parts of the country can subscribe to satellite television service. According to members and staff who spoke with Congress Daily, the current version of the bill would allow DBS companies, such as DirecTV or PrimeStar, to beam local programming - including the local news - to customers in the same local market. The bill also would require the FCC to create a new signal standard in order to determine which consumers are eligible to receive satellite-delivered programming from faraway television networks. Many conferees believe the FCC uses out-of-date rules to decide so-called distant signal eligibility. Conferees agreed to include a provision to allow about one million consumers whom a court last year ruled were receiving the distant signals illegally - to continue to receive the programming at least on a temporary basis. But conferees are still ironing out the final language of the grandfathering provision. The bill also includes non-discrimination language for retransmission consents, but the final details are still unresolved The biggest surprise could be the rural satellite provision, which was not included in either the Senate or House bills. The provision was pushed by a coalition of conferees from rural areas who feared the benefits of the satellite television bill would pass over them because DBS companies would target only the largest markets. According to Rep. Rick Boucher, D-VA, who represents a rural district, conferees have agreed to include a provision in the final bill to encourage the launch of satellite systems intended to serve hundreds of rural and unserved television markets. Although several technical details remain unresolved, Boucher said the bill would create a $1.25 billion federal loan guarantee to encourage nonprofit and private companies to build satellite systems to serve all but the largest television markets. Most commercial DBS companies say they lack the capacity on their networks to carry local signals to more than the largest cities - leaving rural areas and many metropolitan areas, such as Hartford, Connecticut, without local-into local service. Source: Congress Daily