Malone's Next Battleground: NAB

MALONE'S NEXT BATTLEGROUND: NAB
[SOURCE: Multichannel News, AUTHOR: Ted Hearn]
Liberty Media chairman John Malone last week got federal approval to buy nearly 40% of DirecTV Group. At the same time, he bought into something else: A big fight with the National Association of Broadcasters. That’s nothing new for Malone, who spent a good deal of his business life sparring with the TV-station lobby when he ran the No. 1 cable company, Tele-Communications, more than a decade ago. The battle, probably beginning next year, will be about the need for DirecTV, the largest U.S. satellite-TV provider, to provide local TV service to all 210 markets. The company, which serves 16.8 million customers, provides local signals in 144 markets but has no plan to add more than another six, citing the need to husband bandwidth for HD services in the big markets. The NAB is pushing for DirecTV to add the remaining 66 unserved markets by the end of 2008. While Malone’s Liberty was seeking FCC approval to acquire a controlling stake in DirecTV, NAB lobbyists urged it to withhold consent until DirecTV agreed to service every market. The agency rejected that proposal.
http://www.multichannel.com/article/CA6537233.html?nid=4262