Satellite Talks Strive to Solve Signal Overlap Problems
Broadcasters and satellite industry officials plan to meet Thursday to iron out differences over TV signal overlap problems addressed in a draft House Judiciary Committee bill. The problem focuses on markets where there’s a “Grade B bleed” situation, where a station’s over-the-air signal extends beyond the boundaries of its assigned market. In some cases, the signal bleed problem may prevent satellite companies from importing distant signals to households in the affected areas. The problem centers on defining “unserved” households for purposes of allowing distant signal importation.
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Specifically, the Grade B bleed describes a situation where TV signals extend beyond the boundaries of Designated Market Areas. When an NBC affiliate, for instance, bleeds into a DMA that does not have its own NBC affiliate, known as a short market, the bleeding broadcaster has priority over households that can receive the NBC signal at a minimum “Grade B” level. That occurs even though they're outside the broadcaster’s licenced DMA, allowing the broadcaster to count them as viewers when quoting prices for advertisers. Because the broadcaster has this priority over those households, when a direct broadcast satellite provider wants to import distant signals, it must seek a waiver from the bleeding broadcasters.
Without the waiver, the DBS provider can’t import signals to households able to receive the Grade B bleed, and in some cases can’t provide that network’s programming at all to the short market. Some short markets have several over-the-air signals bleeding into areas, making getting the waivers a difficult and time-consuming task for DBS providers, satellite industry officials said.
Satellite providers want language in the bill that would allow distant signal importation, at a minimum, for households with the bleed problem. Without such clarification, satellite faces a further obstacle in resolving the short market problems where subscribers are unable to receive network programming because there’s a local affiliate. Under current law, a satellite subscriber in a short market that had a bleed problem may be ineligible to get programming from a distant market. Although the waivers sometimes are worked out between satellite operators and TV stations, the satellite industry contends that most stations won’t accommodate their requests.
There is tension between broadcasters and satellite over how to balance satellite’s desire to import distant signals, which broadcasters oppose, against the creation of new multichannel broadcast programming, which satellite says is expensive for them to provide when aimed at only a small number of subscribers. “This isn’t the ‘Broadcaster Preservation Act,’ this is the Satellite Home Viewer Act,” said DirecTV Vice President Andrew Reinsdorf. “The facts are on our side.” NAB wouldn’t comment on negotiations, a spokesman said. “NAB has had numerous meetings with various parties on the SHVERA reauthorization. We look forward to working with Congress given this legislation’s importance.”
The Judiciary draft would amend the definition of an “unserved household” to clarify that it does not receive an over-the-air signal containing the primary video of a primary network station from its local affiliate, according to a staff summary. The bill also would add a provision grandfathering subscribers that are lawfully receiving a distant signal on the date the satellite bill is enacted. Congress must pass a bill by the end of the year that renews satellite’s ability to import distant signals to unserved markets, the only provision of the satellite viewership law that expires.
The Judiciary and Commerce committees are working together on the legislation, which straddles both committees’ jurisdictions. The signal bleed issue is under Judiciary, but it was addressed in hearings chaired by House Communications Subcommittee Chairman Rick Boucher, D-Va., a member of both committees. Judiciary’s draft brackets the language dealing with unserved household rules, meaning it’s still up for discussion. Boucher said at the June 25 subcommittee markup that he was reasonably certain agreement could be reached on the matter by the time of full committee markup.
Rep. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., raised concerns about the signal bleed problem at the markup, saying it leaves some constituents in rural areas with no option for broadcast programming. “This is not a simply inconvenient problem. In areas throughout the nation and like in west Tennessee, this is a public safety issue,” she said. Blackburn offered, then withdrew, an amendment that would provide an incentive for satellite to carry affiliates by allowing them to retransmit missing network signals from an adjacent market to subscribers in an area with over-the-air signal bleed. Her amendment would not have affected broadcasters’ network non- duplication syndicated exclusivity or sports blackout rights, and it was silent on whether licenses should be compulsory or freely negotiated. She withdrew the amendment in hopes the matter could be resolved in Judiciary, Blackburn said.
Boucher said he has been trying to assemble all interested parties involved in the Grade B problem, even though it falls under the Judiciary Committee. Satellite industry sources said Thursday’s talks may delve into broadcasters’ desire to provide programming on multichannel tiers that carry local content. Satellite argues that it’s costly to subdivide spot beams so tiers created for local purposes are beamed to customers in Grade B bleed areas lacking local network affiliates.