Ergen: SHVERA Reforms Could Lead To Universal Local-Into-Local By 2010
Dish Network chief talks to Congress about satellite reforms
By John Eggerton -- Broadcasting & Cable, 2/24/2009 10:18:18 AM
"The digital age has arrived," says Dish Network Chairman Charlie Ergen, "and the laws need to catch up." That would include not making satellite operators pay to carry any TV stations or, absent that, Congress coming up with a single retransmission consent rate that applies to all broadcasters and pay TV providers. It also means revamping the satellite carriage regime and what constitutes a local signal.
"Treat a monopoly like a monopoly," says Ergen. "Satellite providers already pay a fixed, per-subscriber copyright royalty rate, and we see no reason why a similar concept can't work for retransmission consent."
In prepared testimony for a House hearing on reauthorizing the Satellite Home Viewer Extension and Reauthorization Act (SHVERA), Ergen listed four fixes he says should be made in the law, which essentially provides the rules of the road for satellite delivery of local TV station signals.
Those fixes, says Ergen, would address the problems of 1) consumers unable to get local news and sports from their home state because of the way markets are configured (almost half cross state lines, according to one satellite lobbyist); 2) rural communities not having all four major nets; 3) retrans fights that deprive local consumers of station signals, and 4) must-carry stations with little or no local content, but which satellite operators are required to carry.
Ergen argues that pay TV providers should be able to import neighboring broadcast stations, with consumers getting to make the call about what local means.
For example, in a market that straddles two states, the ABC affiliate may carry local news, or the games of the college in one state, while viewers in that split market would prefer to get the games of a nearby college that happens to be in an adjacent market.
Ergen says that Dish provides local-into-local service in 178 of Nielsen's 210 markets, or about 97% of TV households. In most of the rest, he says, there are three or fewer network affiliates, which makes it uneconomical to serve because viewers won't want the service it is missing, say, the local NBC affiliate, and DISH is prevented from important a nearby NBC affiliate.
To help remedy that, he says, Congress should step in and allow pay TV providers to import stations from adjacent markets. "If broadcasters won't invest in their local communities," he argues, "pay-TV providers should be able to treat a nearby affiliate as the local affiliate."
At a press conference with reporters before his appearance before the House Communications, Tech & Internet Subcommittee, Ergen said that if Congress institute his suggested broad reforms, that the marketplace would drive either his company, or competitor DirecTV to serve virtually all those 210 markets, and by as early as next year. "I would predict that, based on what we're proposing, it is highly likely that you would get all 210 DMA's with all the DBS players without it being mandated by Congress, and you would probably get it by 2010."
Ergen also argues that 1) retransmission consent reform is needed because broadcasters have too much leverage when they can play a multiplying number of multichannel video providers off one another and that the FCC should set a 20-hours-per week minimum of local programming as a threshold for TV stations to get must-carry status, saying satellite operators are forced to carry "hundreds of stations today that have little or
no local content.."
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Charlie Ergen of Dish Network is in Litigaten with CEO Colleen Brown of Fisher Communication. He\'s pulled the plug on these Fisher stations. This all started December 17th, 2008. Charlie and Dish Network was going to be charged to much from Fisher. Contract was breached and now a state/federal judge in Eugene, Oregon is hearing it.'>Maybe doing this would not hold to many hostage of ABC in Seattle. CBS and Fox in Bakersfield. The problem became a lie. The National Association of Broadcasters can go to the u.s. supreme court, and order the FCC to admend localism. The bad part of it, is CE> Charlie Ergen of Dish Network is in Litigaten with CEO Colleen Brown of Fisher Communication. He's pulled the plug on these Fisher stations. This all started December 17th, 2008. Charlie and Dish Network was going to be charged to much from Fisher. Contract was breached and now a state/federal judge in Eugene, Oregon is hearing it.
Tom - 2/25/2009 12:38:47 PM EST -
Id like to see that any local market is available to me -if im willing to pay
IE: we live in Tampa and get tampa locals, my wife is from San francisco and Im from Miami, Id love to be able to get those local stations -im willing to pay for them !!
its never freedom of choice while we have archaic laws in place.
Paul Bowie - 2/25/2009 9:06:52 AM EST -
I agree with the proposal. My local markets are not carried by my satellite provider. My local stations need the competition of allowing me to receive other markets to force them to clean up their act and provide a quality feed. Too many times they botch the network feed by inserting local content which runs into the network feed. Also one station transmits two networks with one being a subchannel so it will never have the bandwidth be HD. I deserve the choice. They need to provide a better product so I will make them my choice or I should be able to go elsewhere.
Peter Zieger - 2/25/2009 8:24:34 AM EST -
Obviously Charlie Ergen proposes these changes because they benefit Echostar, not out of the kindness of his heart. Nonetheless, Ergen's proposals seem perfectly reasonable and quite consumer friendly.
So much of our communications policy is driven by "localism". Requiring a meaningful amount of local content as a prerequisite for must carry status seems quite fair. Likewise allowing rural viewers an opportunity to get programming from all four major networks seems sensible.
Allowing access to both your local DMA and an adjacent DMA in your home state should benefit stations with the stronger local programming.
I don't know if Congress will go so far as to mandate a fixed rate for retransmission consent. However, the rest of Ergen's ideas sound pretty reasonable.
Jim - 2/24/2009 12:57:17 PM EST
