Industry to Push for Action on Satellite Home Viewer Act
The Senate Judiciary Committee will take up re- authorizing the Satellite Home Viewer Act once the committee gets through its first round of Obama nominations, Senate officials said. The satellite bill must pass in 2009 or the direct broadcast satellite industry will lose access to some copyrighted programs. “Very quickly I suspect there will be a time when they will turn their attention to other matters” than the nominations, said a Senate aide close to Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt. “I don’t anticipate this will be an issue that will be held, because the legislative process can be long.”
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The pay-TV industry spent the last months of 2008 preparing for a big push, but held back when it realized that Congress was concentrating on the DTV transition, the economic stimulus bill and confirmation of President Barack Obama’s Cabinet choices, industry lobbyists told us. Many lobbyists suspect it could be late summer before Congress considers the re-authorization, but Senate officials believe it will be sooner.
The satellite-TV industry wants Congress to pass a five- year re-authorization that’s as clean as possible, DBS industry officials said. House Telecom Subcommittee Chairman Rick Boucher, D-Va., said he thinks the business can get what it seeks. “I am not aware of any major issues,” he said. Boucher also sits on the House Judiciary Committee, which has jurisdiction over the re-authorization. Since it’s a “must- pass” bill, it “could become a Christmas Tree for a lot of different issues,” warned attorney Andrew Lipman at the UBS investor conference late last year.
Some video industry officials believe Congress should try to overhaul the retransmission consent system. But “it is easy to identify the problem. It is hard to create a solution,” said one pay-TV industry executive. The retransmission set-up is largely successful, a broadcast industry official said. “You might see a lot of rhetoric and threats but in the final analysis these deals tend to get done with little or no disruption,” the official said. “It is clear cable will use this for mischief and try to get retransmission eliminated.”
Retransmission consent involves commercial negotiations, and each side claims it’s reasonable and the other isn’t. “Broadcasters are inclined to be reasonable to ensure that those signals are not pulled off a pay-TV system,” the broadcast industry source said. The pay-TV industry thinks some broadcasters try to elevate their worth, several officials said.
An effort to revamp the retransmission-consent system would ensure that legislation doesn’t pass this year, industry officials said. An overhaul attempt would “be another big battle on top of a big battle,” a pay-TV executive said. Broadcasters and the cable industry seem ready to accept a short extension if debate on substantive issues continues, but DBS is reluctant to go along without a clean bill, several officials on and off Capitol Hill said.
Congress will face a debate between choice and exclusivity, according to players in the debate. Broadcasters will be looking to ensure that all local stations are carried by DBS, said a broadcast industry official. “Our local goal is to have every local broadcaster carried in every market,” the official said. There are 50 or 60 markets without local-into-local, the official said. “Our approach to renewal is to provide more choice without taking away any options,” said Andrew Reinsdorf, vice president of government affairs for DirecTV.
The DBS industry will seek legislation overhauling the designated market system, a DBS industry official said. Place-shifting technology is eroding the exclusivity that broadcasters used to enjoy, a DBS industry official said. The last time the satellite license legislation was re- authorized, a provision was added allowing viewers in five places to receive in-state broadcasts even though the broadcaster for the designated market area was in another state. DBS wants to extend that nationwide, the official said. The broadcast industry is opposed to changing the DMA system. “Once you start unraveling the thread of localism then you get into some serious issues about whether local customers will be able to get emergency alerts and Amber alerts,” said a broadcast executive.
Broadcasters are fine with DBS bringing in distant signals of “truly unserved” areas, industry officials said, but they're skeptical that all of the areas that DBS claims are unserved can’t receive a local broadcast signal.
The Obama administration hasn’t made known its goals for satellite home viewer reauthorization and the players haven’t started lobbying the administration seriously, officials said.