CABLE COMPETITION, DTV ISSUES HIGHLIGHT HOUSE SHVIA DEBATE
Members of the House Telecom Subcommittee raised lots of questions about the Satellite Home Viewer Improvement Act (SHVIA) Wed., but many didn’t offer much insight into their thoughts on renewal. Cable competition, the DTV transition and the “second dish” issue for EchoStar (which uses a 2nd dish to deliver some local channels) were popular topics. Those with constituents near state lines, who wanted access to local broadcast signals from distant markets, said it was important to give consumers options.
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House Commerce Committee ranking Democrat Dingell (Mich.) said the Committee should pursue these policy goals when considering SHVIA reauthorization: (1) Strengthening the ability of DBS to compete with cable. (2) Empowering consumers to receive programming of their choice. (3) Not “unduly” weakening local broadcasters and their revenue streams.
In a statement, House Commerce Committee Chmn. Barton (R-Tex.) only summarized the issues and said “formidable questions” must be answered before SHVIA is renewed. House Telecom Subcommittee ranking Democrat Markey (Mass.) said he believed the presence of an overbuilder was still the best way to instill competition for cable, since DBS providers didn’t appear to provide enough price competition.
David Moskowitz, EchoStar senior vp-gen. counsel, said it should be easy to determine what the reach of broadcast DTV signals are because the signal doesn’t degrade like that of an analog broadcast. Congress should allow DBS to offer distant signals for any viewer that doesn’t have a broadcast signal. But Robert Lee, WDBJ-TV Roanoke, Va. pres.-gen. mgr. (on behalf of NAB), said broadcasters were making progress on the DTV rollout and should be given more time before expansion of DBS’s right to transmit digital signals into broadcast markets.
Lee said DBS should be working harder to offer local- into-local service as opposed to broadcasting distance signals. Lee said the digital white space was a “Trojan horse” for DBS that helped the industry raise funds to sue the broadcast industry. “This proposal is a recipe for mischief,” he said. Moskowitz also said DBS shouldn’t be forbidden from providing distant signals until the broadcasters relinquished analog spectrum. Lee said that SHVIA reauthorization should prohibit DBS from offering distant signals in areas they could offer local signals.
Questions were raised about EchoStar’s 2-dish policy, under which a 2nd dish is needed to provide local channels. Rep. Boucher (D-Va.) and Rep. Engel (D-N.Y.) asked about the practice, with Engel saying it appeared that in N.Y. Hispanic and PBS stations were predominately placed on the 2nd dish. Moskowitz noted EchoStar didn’t charge consumers for the 2nd dish or its installation. Boucher said he believed EchoStar’s approach to was reasonable. Lee said Congress should outlaw the 2-dish practice.
Matthew Polka, American Cable Assn. pres., said his group would support a basic reauthorization of SHVIA, though he said it gave DBS regulatory advantages. He said DBS had significant competitive advantages over small, local cable systems. If changes are made to SHVIA, Polka recommended: (1) Giving local cable systems access to DBS local-to-local signals. (2) Requiring DBS to provide a “broadcast basic level” of service to all customers where DBS provides local broadcast signals. (3) Granting cable operators standing to file complaints against DBS for violations of SHVIA’s broadcast carriage requirements.
Consumers Union’s Gene Kimmelman said the best way to create more consumer choice for cable was to: (1) Impose limits on media ownership. He cited News Corp’s purchase of DirecTV, which he said reduced incentives for price competition since the company distributes both content and the signal. (2) Require content providers to sell each channel to cable distributors on an individual basis. (3) Require cable companies to sell its channels to consumers “a la carte.”