Broadcasters See Victory in Clean Senate Judiciary STELA Bill

This STELA bill is the second to emerge this year. Commerce and Judiciary in both chambers have jurisdiction over STELA, and House Commerce cleared a STELA bill in May that included some tweaks to the video market. Leahy’s bill had not been posted online. A communications industry lobbyist said it’s two pages long, would extend the Copyright Act Section 119 license for five years and make some small technical tweaks to sections 111 and 119, fitting Leahy’s descriptions. But that lobbyist also predicted some Judiciary members are already eyeing potential amendments that may make the bill less than clean.

"This legislation ensures that communities across America will continue to benefit from” broadcast-TV programming, said NAB CEO Gordon Smith in a statement. It doesn’t involve “undermining consumers’ uniquely free over-the-air access to broadcast programming, particularly those viewers who are traditionally underserved by other mediums,” he said. The bill “can garner the support of all stakeholders,” Smith said. Jim Conschafter, president of the NBC Affiliates Association, praised Leahy for showing “a clear way forward by introducing a clean STELA bill,” he said. “We hope that others follow his leadership and steer clear of irrelevant issues.” Michael Fiorile, chairman of the CBS Affiliates Board, praised Leahy on its behalf for “keeping the satellite renewal debate focused on what it should be -- renewal of the distant satellite license -- and free of extraneous issues.”

Two coalitions, one including pay-TV interests and one broadcast interests, have warred over whether to overhaul video market rules, such as those governing retransmission consent, through STELA. TVFreedom represents NAB and other broadcast interests and praised the Judiciary bill. The Judiciary legislation “preserves Americans’ access to vital local broadcast television and stands up to the pay-TV lobby,” TVFreedom declared. “As the STELA reauthorization calendar turns to other congressional committees of jurisdiction, we hope that they too will continue to rebuke controversial pay-TV add-ons and pass similar clean legislation in the interest of consumers.” TVFreedom also sent letters jointly with the Media Alliance and The Hispanic Institute to the Commerce Committee and Communications Subcommittee leadership in both chambers to investigate pay-TV industry billing and business practices (http://bit.ly/1xEa8zl). “Pay-TV industry-wide practices, such as erroneous overbilling, equipment rental fees and inflated or unnecessary ‘extra’ charges, are the result of an uncompetitive market structure and all contribute to rising monthly cable and satellite TV bills for America’s consumers nationwide,” the letters to both chambers said.

The American Television Alliance, with Dish Network, DirecTV, Free Press, USTelecom and Verizon among its members, scoffed at the bill. “In the past 20 years, there has never been a ‘clean’ version of STELA because our video laws cannot keep up with changing technology,” ATVA said. Retrans is “more broken than ever and STELA is the best opportunity to help provide consumers with relief from skyrocketing retrans fees and blackouts,” it said.

The American Cable Association, an ATVA member, wants Congress to address retrans rules, President Matthew Polka said: Rules on retrans -- “more closely tied to the jurisdiction of the Commerce Committees -- are not working and need to be reformed as soon as possible.” The Independent Telephone and Telecommunications Alliance, another ATVA member, said it’s “disappointed” with the bill, which “does not include language to protect consumers from collusive behavior by broadcasters, such as the practice of extracting higher prices for broadcast content by jointly negotiating for carriage of video programming."

Leahy called the bill a “narrow approach” that “may not please all stakeholders,” with some wanting “Congress to use this legislation as a vehicle to enact significant changes to the current system that governs the relationship between broadcast television stations and distributors,” and others wanting STELA to expire. “My focus is on the consumers who stand to lose access to broadcast television content in the event that Congress is unable to pass a bill by the end of the year,” Leahy said in introducing his STELA draft. “My bipartisan bill will ensure that those rural viewers are not left in the dark come December 31” and will be “extending the current system for another five years, while also making some minor technical corrections to the existing statutes,” Leahy said.

The Writers Guild of America-West “strongly” backs the Judiciary bill, it said in a statement. It’s “particularly grateful the legislation does not weaken retransmission rules, which remain a fair way of compensating broadcasters for the content they provide to programming distributors,” it said.

The Senate Commerce Committee is at work on its own STELA bill, as is the House Judiciary Committee. Lobbyists expect the former to be far more likely to include video market add-ons and the latter far more narrow, akin to the Senate Judiciary bill. Lobbyists and Capitol Hill staffers also have widely pointed to the Aereo court case, pending before the Supreme Court and with a decision expected later this month, as a wild card that could disrupt the STELA reauthorization process.