[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 183 (Tuesday, December 8, 2009)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E2913-E2914]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




           SATELLITE HOME VIEWER REAUTHORIZATION ACT OF 2009

                                 ______
                                 

                               speech of

                        HON. FRANK KRATOVIL, JR.

                              of maryland

                    in the house of representatives

                      Wednesday, December 2, 2009

  Mr. KRATOVIL. Madam Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 3570, the 
Satellite Home Viewer Update and Reauthorization Act of 2009. This 
legislation reauthorizes the satellite compulsory license for carriage 
of distant network satellite affiliate TV station signals. If this bill 
does not become law before the end of the year, the distant network 
carriage license will expire and satellite subscribers would be left in 
the dark.
  While I support the underlying legislation, I would like to draw 
attention to a provision that I believe could undermine our efforts to 
ensure rural residents have access to local programming. By redefining 
an ``unserved household'' to include those served by multicast 
networks, this legislation allows satellite broadcasters to continue to 
import distant, out-of-market signals into short markets when they are 
no longer necessary. I request that a letter signed by 18 bipartisan 
Members of the House of Representatives expressing concern over this 
definition of ``unserved household,'' be inserted as an extraneous 
material.

                                               Washington, DC,

                                                 December 2, 2009.
     Hon. John Conyers, Jr.,
     Chairman, Committee on the Judiciary, House of 
         Representatives, Washington, DC.
     Hon. Lamar Smith,
     Ranking Member, Committee on the Judiciary, House of 
         Representatives, Washington, DC.
       Dear Chairman Conyers and Ranking Member Smith: We write 
     today to express our concerns regarding the manner in which 
     H.R. 3570, the Satellite Home Viewer Update and 
     Reauthorization Act of 2009, would diminish the availability 
     of local programming available to satellite television 
     subscribers.
       Digital multicasting enables broadcasters to provide TV 
     viewers with expanded options for free, local TV programming 
     beyond the primary network affiliate channel. In pursuit of 
     this promise, many broadcasters have already begun 
     multicasting dedicated sports, ethnic, minority, weather, 
     news, and hyper-local channels.
       In various markets, including ``short markets,'' i.e., 
     television markets lacking a full complement of network 
     affiliates, some stations have begun multicasting a local 
     network affiliate other than the network affiliate carried on 
     their primary channel. For example, television viewers in the 
     Beaumont, TX market, which lacked a local NBC station, can 
     now watch local NBC affiliate K-JAC as a multicast channel 
     provided by a station that broadcasts the ABC affiliate

[[Page E2914]]

     KBMT on its primary channel. It is important to note that 
     this multicast channel, like numerous similar network 
     affiliates that are broadcast on multicast channels across 
     the country, is a full-fledged network station providing 
     viewers with a full slate of a network's programming to the 
     same geographic area as the station's other digital channel 
     that broadcasts ABC programming. There is no rational public 
     policy reason to treat the two network channels differently 
     under copyright law.
       Unfortunately, H.R. 3570, the Satellite Home Viewer Update 
     and Reauthorization Act of 2009, enables DBS companies to 
     impede and undermine multicast network affiliates. By re-
     defining a household capable of receiving a local network 
     signal through the air as ``unserved'' if the signal is 
     delivered via digital multicast technology, Sections 3(h)(1) 
     and 3(h)(6) of H.R. 3570 together allow DBS companies to 
     import distant network affiliates that duplicate the 
     programming of the local, multicast network affiliate. This 
     provision will not only undermine existing multicast 
     stations, but it will also give local stations far less 
     incentive to multicast an additional local network affiliate 
     in the future if large numbers of potential viewers are 
     already receiving an affiliate of that network through a DBS 
     provider. Thus, these provisions may deprive viewers of 
     locally-oriented programming by undermining existing 
     multicast arrangements and removing the incentive for local 
     stations to continue to offer or roll out new multicast 
     network affiliated channels.
       While H.R. 3570 only provides satellite companies this 
     ability for 3 years following enactment, after the recent 
     economic downturn, the next three years will be critical to 
     the development of new, innovative, free, over-the-air 
     digital network broadcast services, including networks that 
     contain programming developed for ethnic minorities. Sections 
     3(h)(1) and 3(h)(6) of H.R. 3570 should be changed to ensure 
     that DBS companies cannot import a distant network signal 
     that duplicates a local network affiliated multicast station.
       Additionally, as twelve members of the House Judiciary 
     Committee stated in the additional views that were filed in 
     the report language that accompanied H.R. 3570, ``the 
     preference in section three of the bill may result in 
     discouraging free over-the-air local broadcasters from 
     affiliating with more than one network and developing a 
     market-based solution to the 'missing network affiliate' 
     problem. This would limit the number of free network 
     programming options available to consumers and, in effect, 
     require consumers to subscribe to pay television to receive 
     network they might otherwise have been able to view for 
     free.''
       We appreciate your attention to this critically important 
     issue. As you continue to work on the reauthorization of the 
     Satellite Home Viewer Extension and Reauthorization Act 
     during a House-Senate conference committee, we encourage you 
     to support the approach to protecting multicast channels that 
     was adopted by the Senate Judiciary Committee.
           Sincerely,
         Frank Kratovil; Roy Blunt; Tom Cole; Alan Mollohan; 
           Rodney Alexander; Michael McMahon; Brett Guthrie; Bob 
           Filner; Thomas Rooney; Nick J. Rahall; Christopher Lee; 
           Gregory Meeks; Blaine Luetkemeyer; Raul Grijalva; 
           Shelley Capito; Sam Farr.

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