Senate Bill Would Mandate DirecTV Local Carriage

Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-MO) is preparing an amendment to the Senate Commerce Committee version of the satellite reauthorization bill that would mandate local TV station service to all 210 markets by satellite carriers EchoStar and DirecTV. That makes it different from the House version of local-into-local carriage in all 210 markets, which says that if EchoStar wants to get back into the distant-signal business, it will have to deliver local TV station signals to the remaining 30 or so smallest markets that lack them. That voluntary provision was part of a compromise reached between EchoStar and broadcasters and urged by House Communications Subcommittee Chairman Rick Boucher (D-VA), though the deal is threatened by an amendment advancing the timetable for satellite carriage of noncommercial HD signals. The amendment was adopted by the House Commerce Committee, but opposed by Chairman Boucher for its potential to unravel the deal. The draft of the Senate Commerce bill [STELA, the Satellite Television Extension and Localism Act] that was circulated last week did not include a local-into-local mandate, but McCaskill is aiming to fix that.