Few House Communications Members Take Clear STELA Positions at Hearing
Few House Communications Subcommittee members took discernible positions on Satellite Television Extension and Localism Act reauthorization during a Tuesday hearing, amid observations of a clear divide among stakeholders. Three witnesses spoke in favor of some form of renewal, while NAB CEO Gordon Smith argued for expiration, as expected (see 1906030065). The panel was the House Commerce Committee's first review during this Congress on recertification of the statute, to expire Dec. 31 (see 1905280061). The Senate Commerce Committee plans a hearing Wednesday (see 1905290029).
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House Communications Chairman Mike Doyle, D-Pa., told reporters Monday, “I personally think that we need to reauthorize [STELA] but there’s a lot of different opinions out there.” He said during the Tuesday hearing that “the law isn’t a perfect solution.” Allowing it “to sunset would create a crisis that could result in nearly a million consumers losing access to important broadcast content. Allowing a lapse of the good-faith standard in retransmission consent negotiations only invites bad behavior and consumer harm.” Doyle acknowledged before the hearing there's some degree of divide among House Communications Democrats on renewing STELA but “generally a diversity of opinion” among members in both parties.
House Commerce Chairman Frank Pallone, D-N.J., didn't take a clear position on recertification but said lawmakers need to consider “what are the implications if STELAR is not reauthorized and how will the over 800,000 consumers currently receiving distant signals be impacted?” Focus "our analysis on the consumers,” partly to “ensure that consumers are not rendered pawns in high-stakes negotiations between video distribution companies and big broadcaster station groups.”
House Commerce ranking member Greg Walden, R-Ore., said “our goal should certainly be that everyone in this country has access to local content at a reasonable price.” Walden last year voiced skepticism about the need to renew all or part of this law (see 1810230051) but didn't take a position now. “Consumers won’t tolerate gaps in coverage, blackouts, and arbitrage opportunities that drive up prices and reduce the quality of local content,” he said. “Congress must consider whether a distant network signal license extension is a bridge -- or a blockade -- to delivering local coverage.”
House Minority Whip Steve Scalise, R-La., and Rep. Anna Eshoo, D-Calif., used the hearing to tout their work on a coming bill aimed at revamping retrans and other TV rules. The two said Monday they had agreed on a “legislative framework” for the bill. Eshoo said she's aiming for the bill to “end blackouts by overhauling outdated regulations.” Her past Video Consumers Have Options in Choosing Entertainment (Video Choice) Act, seen as a potential influence on the new bill, addressed blackouts (see 1312130065 and 1812280025).
Scalise argued Congress should undertake a broader revamp of video market laws, as he in the past proposed in his Next Generation TV Marketplace Act. That would repeal compulsory copyright licenses and retrans provisions included in the 1992 Cable Act and end Communications Act mandates on carriage and purchase of certain broadcast signals by MVPDs (see 1903200009). “Some people think that STELA going away gets us reform, but it really doesn't,” Scalise said. That “just brings us back to the fundamental” Cable Act, which “is incredibly outdated. We've got a marketplace that's changed dramatically since 1992” and “it's long past time for Congress to do it.”
Other House Communications members in both parties took a range of positions. Billy Long, R-Mo., urged fellow lawmakers to “take a hard look at the underlying” provisions in STELA and their “relevance today rather than assuming [reauthorization] is a necessity.” House Commerce “should ignore the inclination to rubber-stamp this legislation only because this committee has historically done so,” he said. John Shimkus, R-Ill., argued “there's a middle ground” between a clean renewal of the existing statute and full expiration. “I don't see how you're served by either” of those options, Shimkus told America’s Communications Association Vice Chair Patricia Jo Boyers.
Dave Loebsack, D-Iowa, was one of several lawmakers who invoked concerns about STELA’s distant signal statutory license provision in the context of the 12 media markets where AT&T's DirecTV provides limited or no access to locally broadcasted networks' stations (see 1905310051). AT&T Senior Vice President-Content and Programming Rob Thun told Loebsack and other lawmakers the 12 markets have access to local stations' terrestrial signals. Thun argued cost and technological concerns prevent AT&T from providing local-to-local access in the 12 affected markets.