The ‘contentious issues’ raised by the Satellite Home Viewer Impr...
The “contentious issues” raised by the Satellite Home Viewer Improvement Act (SHVIA) are more important than consideration of EchoStar’s distant digital white area proposal, Capitol Bcstg. Co. (CBC) told the FCC in a letter. Congress is considering an extension…
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of the act, which expires this year (CD March 11 p6). CBC said it supports 5- year extension of the act. While the company doesn’t support amendments, it said Congress may wish to address: (1) Unnecessary delivery of distant signals to markets where DBS local signals are available. (2) EchoStar’s “discriminatory” 2-dish plan which creates “2 classes of stations within the same market,” CBC said. (3) “Requir[ing] DBS providers to cooperate technically with 3rd parties for the delivery of local markets not offered by the DBS provider… DBS should not be allowed to act as a ‘roadblock’ to local analog and digital signals.” CBC said the distant digital white area proposal shouldn’t be adopted. EchoStar and DirecTV already provide the N.Y.C. and L.A. digital signals as distant signals to subscribers and it’s “creating numerous problems,” CBC said. Besides confusing subscribers, the waivers undermine localism now and will continue to do so, the company said, citing EchoStar’s David Moskowitz as telling a House subcommittee that subscribers should be allowed to keep the distant digital signals even if their local digital signal is available. CBC said allowing digital white areas will allow history to repeat itself, including tempting DBS operators to “sign-up illegal distant digital subscribers just like they did before they began carrying local analog signals.” CBC said the distant digital signal is an excuse for DBS operators not to carry local digital signals.