STELA Language Needs Clarification, Say DBS Providers
The FCC should clarify important points when implementing the Satellite TV Extension and Localism Act of 2010 (STELA) to avoid unintended consequences during retransmission consent negotiations, said DirecTV and Dish Network. The comments were in response to a rulemaking proposing to allow direct broadcast satellite providers to transmit the HD signals of significantly viewed stations (SVS) only if they also transmit the local station network affiliate in HD, if available. DirecTV said the language changes in the law could be construed to require satellite-TV providers during retransmission disputes to lower the resolution of other broadcasts.
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While the STELA updates are positive, interpretation of statutory language could lead to results contrary to Congressional intent, DirecTV said. The new law drops the “same network service requirement” to de-link carriage of significantly viewed stations from particular local stations and avoid the satellite-TV providers from being forced to drop neighboring stations during retransmissions consent disputes. STELA changes a provision on requiring “equivalent bandwidth” for local stations and SVS to requiring HD for local when providing HD SVS. The law could be read so that if a “local station were to withhold retransmission consent, we would have to either” lower resolution of the “neighboring station into standard definition format or drop it as well,” said DirecTV. The commission should read the language so it’s harmonized, it said. The FCC should amend retransmission consent rules to clarify it’s not good faith to condition local-into-local carriage on restrictions with respect to SVS, said Dish. Such restrictions prevent consumers from realizing the local benefits of SVS, the company said.
Broadcasters had a mixed reaction to the FCC’s planned changes to what DBS providers must do to carry an out-of-market TV station to subscribers in a market with a local outlet affiliated with the same network. The proposal to replace a requirement that in such situations the in-market station must get the same amount of bandwidth on the DBS carrier as the distant signal with a requirement the company carry it in HD format was supported by broadcast associations. “As the legislative history makes clear, it was the intent of Congress to replace the ‘equivalent or entire bandwidth’ provision with a simpler and more straightforward HD format provision,” said a filing from the NAB and the Big Four affiliate associations.
The regulator’s proposal for another change to significantly viewed station rules for DBS providers drew fire from those five groups. Removing a requirement that the satellite provider retransmit the signal of the in-market station in order to also carry a significantly viewed broadcaster affiliated with the same network doesn’t comport with the underlying legislation, they said. “Nothing in STELA evinces a congressional intent to abandon the Act’s basic and fundamental requirement that satellite carriage of a local network station is a pre-condition to importation of a distant SV station affiliated with the same network. Any other reading of STELA would be contrary to the statute’s core policy objectives of protecting the integrity of ‘localism’ and local broadcast television service.” The broadcast groups backed an FCC proposal in the July 23 rulemaking notice to replace references to the Grade B analog contour with the noise limited service contour, now that all full-power broadcasters have made the DTV transition.