Dish Sues FCC Over ‘PBS HD Mandate’
Dish Network sued the FCC Thursday and seeks temporary injunctive relief from enforcement of a rule it carry local HD programming of public TV stations. Dish filed the suit in the U.S. District Court for Nevada. While Dish highly values PBS programming, “this case is about who gets to make the editorial judgment whether to carry local PBS stations in HD — Dish or the government,” the satellite-TV company said.
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Dish is challenging the provision as it relates to the Satellite Television Extension and Localism Act of 2010 (STELA), which passed in Congress in May, the motion said. Under a provision, satellite-TV companies are required to “provide subscribers with all of the local broadcast TV stations assigned to the subscriber’s designated market area that have asked the satellite TV company to carry them,” the FCC has said. STELA reauthorizes this provision that is already in the Satellite Home Viewer Extension and Reauthorization Act. The updated law also provides that a distant HD signal can only be imported if the satellite carrier also carries the local station’s HD signal. The commission must conclude a rulemaking proceeding within 270 days of enactment of STELA to address the significantly viewed carriage issue.
"Congress has now stepped in to override Dish’s editorial choice with a mandate to carry local PBS stations in HD format, because Congress believes that this government-sponsored speech is more valuable to Dish’s subscribers than other programs,” it said.
Although the suit is brought against the FCC, it “challenges a brand new statutory requirement that the FCC has never interpreted or enforced,” a commission spokesman said. “Therefore, the challenge is to Congressional, not agency action,” but the agency will work with the Department of Justice to handle the case, he said.
Some members of the public broadcast industry are baffled by Dish’s focus on public broadcasting. “They're discriminating against public television,” said Lonna Thompson, interim president of the Association of Public Television Stations. But “they include the top four or five commercial stations.” Public TV viewers want local HD programming, she said. “Our public TV stations are getting calls from viewers wondering why they can’t get local programming on Dish, and the stations have to explain to the viewers why."
If Dish’s request is granted, public TV viewers will not only be barred from certain educational programming, but local homeland security will be hindered, said Kurt Mische, president of KNPB Reno. “Dish wants to put up a national PBS feed,” he said, “but the essence of public TV is local service to local communities.” If a crisis affects Nevada, “a national feed isn’t going to be able to provide information to local citizens about what they should do,” he said. Dish Network was not available for comment.