House Republicans Outline STELA Draft Pre-Markup

The House Communications Subcommittee draft of the Satellite Television Extension and Localism Act (STELA) bill that will be the subject of a markup March 24 and 25 still contains the provision that would undo the Federal Communications Commission's planned March 31 vote to limit TV joint sales agreements (JSAs).

That will certainly be a bone of major contention with Democrats at the hearing. FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler has decided to take action on JSAs, and limiting coordinated retransmission negotiations among the top four stations in that March 31 vote, while launching a combined 2010/2014 quadrennial ownership regulatory review.

The draft bill also limits coordinated retransmission, though in a slightly different way than Chairman Wheeler's proposal -- it is not limited to the top four and cable operators could elect to allow for coordinated negotiations if they chose -- but would disallow any commission action to make JSAs attributable until it has wrapped up that 2010 quadrennial review. The draft would still eliminate the ban on integrated set-top boxes, something cable operators have been pushing for, but that will also get pushback from Democrats.