STELA Hearing Off; Questions Remain on First Much-Debated Draft
A Wednesday hearing on what’s become a controversial satellite bill reauthorization is off, said the subcommittee Monday. Industry officials and House Communications Subcommittee Chairman Greg Walden, R-Ore., blamed weather and not the criticism that erupted last week for the cancellation. The subcommittee had planned the hearing on the Satellite Television Localism and Extension Act, which expires at the end of 2014. Subcommittee leadership circulated provisions of a draft STELA bill starting late last week, stirring heavy opposition from broadcasters (CD Feb 28 p1). Rep. Steve Scalise, R-La., is seen as responsible for many provisions of the draft.
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"Despite the curve ball from Old Man Winter, our thoughtful process to reauthorize the nation’s satellite television law continues and we remain on track to introduce legislation by the end of the month,” said Walden, R-Ore., in a statement. “We appreciate the input of our members, stakeholders, and the public as we work to reauthorize this important law before the clock runs out on many of its important provisions at the end of the year."
Weather was the dominant factor causing the hearing’s postponement, industry officials said, with one saying it cut the legislative week short and that some witnesses were expected to fly in. Snow caused the federal government to close Monday, along with Washington-area businesses, schools and other offices. A spokesman for one subcommittee Republican indicated all is quiet on Capitol Hill as well. That spokesman and a legislative staffer stayed home, and every briefing on the Hill he knew of for Monday was canceled, he said. A STELA meeting among Republican offices set for Monday was also canceled, a spokesman for Rep. Joe Barton, R-Texas, told us.
The current draft of STELA would allow multichannel video programming distributors to opt out of joint negotiation with broadcasters in the matter of joint sales agreements and shared services agreements, kill the sweeps-week rule, allow cable operators to remove broadcast stations from the basic tier within two years and end the integration ban, which demands cable operators use CableCARDs instead of built-in security in set-top boxes. Witnesses set to testify had been NCTA CEO Michael Powell; Schurz Communications Senior Vice President-Broadcasting Marci Burdick, an NAB board member; TiVo General Counsel Matt Zinn, who objects to the integration ban legislation now expected to be part of the STELA draft; and DirecTV Executive Vice President Mike Palkovic.
Scalise pressed Republican offices hard on video revamp issues and has had this bit in his mouth for years, said a media industry lobbyist, attributing much of STELA draft provisions to him. Scalise was a driving force for the STELA provisions, said another industry official. Scalise’s office didn’t comment. Walden and Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton, R-Mich., need to make sure their members are on board and worried most about Scalise, who chairs the Republican Study Committee and has influence in the party, the lobbyist said. A freewheeling markup, with potential rebellion from Scalise, would have caused problems, the lobbyist added.
Scalise introduced his Next Generation Television Marketplace Act on the same day in December that subcommittee ranking member Anna Eshoo, D-Calif., introduced her Video CHOICE (Consumers Have Options in Choosing Entertainment) Act. Both bills address retransmission consent blackouts from different approaches, and the media lobbyist suspected the stances of both members influenced the draft. “We could accomplish that with the reauthorization of STELA,” Eshoo said of retrans law updates during a mid-February episode of C-SPAN’s The Communicators, saying she and Scalise have been working together (CD Feb 13 p2). The latest STELA draft is not seen as directly addressing the question of retrans blackouts.
Broadcasters continued to mobilize opposition this week. They have expressed surprise at the draft, pointing to Walden’s past emphasis on a clean reauthorization. TVFreedom, a recently formed coalition of broadcast interests including NAB, worries about how the STELA draft will affect broadcasters’ ability to negotiate with pay-TV providers as well as how removing broadcast stations from the basic tier would affect consumers’ lives and bills, said a spokesman. “We sort of renamed it,” he said in reference to broadcasters’ referring to the “lifeline” basic tier. “These are real issues for people.” The spokesman said these provisions give MVPDs an advantage in the market and may affect local market power significantly.
The STELA draft being described is quite narrow and what should have been expected, a pay-TV lobbyist said Monday. Walden hasn’t talked about having a clean bill for awhile, instead framing his goal as having a narrow bill, as this draft truly seems to be, the lobbyist said. A different telecom industry lobbyist had voiced similar judgment last week, saying the described provisions mark good incremental updates to video law and have a real chance of passing into law.
The media industry lobbyist said he was a little surprised by how quickly the House Republican staff assembled their STELA draft -- and also at the timing, given many broadcasters were in town last week for a meeting and able to make their presence known more than usual on the Hill. The media industry lobbyist was unsure if the broadcaster opposition would necessitate changes to the draft. The real “800-pound gorilla” amid all these debates is the Aereo Supreme Court case, that lobbyist said, suspecting the legislative focus could all change in the coming months depending on that decision.