Nebraska Hill Republicans Urge AT&T Provide Local Station Access on DirecTV
Three Republican members of Nebraska’s congressional delegation urged AT&T to provide access to local stations for all of its DirecTV subscribers in the state before the June 1 effective date of parts of the Satellite Television Extension and Localism Act.…
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AT&T told members of Congress’ Commerce and Judiciary committees earlier this month it's working to address expected customer upheaval caused by STELA (see 2004200065). Lawmakers repeatedly criticized AT&T during the STELA debate for not offering local signals in 12 designated market areas, including Nebraska’s North Platte and Scottsbluff markets (see 1905310051). “Given the ongoing COVID-19 national emergency, the availability of local broadcast programming is more important,” Sens. Deb Fischer and Ben Sasse and Rep. Adrian Smith wrote AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson. AT&T is "currently in discussions with each of the major broadcast networks to obtain access to their national programming for many" impacted customers, a spokesperson emailed. "Local stations have exclusive control over who can offer their content within their communities. Our goal is to continue providing network content to as many homes as possible and impacted customers are eligible for a credit."