Burns: More Local TV via Satellite

[Steve Mehs]

Sen. Conrad Burns, the Montana Republican and chair of the Senate Telecommunications Subcommittee, told an audience at the national cable show Monday that he wants the satellite TV business to expand its local channel slate to more markets.

"I would like to see more local-into-local to give you (the cable industry) a little more competition," Burns said during his chat with Robert Sachs, president of the National Cable Telecommunications Association.

In addition to Sachs and Burns, Rep. Fred Upton, a Michigan Republican and chair of the House Telecommunications Subcommittee, joined the discussion, which took place at NCTA's convention in Chicago. Upton jumped on the continuing transition to digital TV, and told the lunchtime group that he hopes there will be no need for legislation to keep the DTV switch on track.

The analog spectrum currently in use needs to be transitioned to other services, including emergency uses, both Burns and Upton said.

During the discussion, Burns reiterated his desire to see more broadband offerings and stronger communications services in rural areas. "In Montana, we have a lot of dirt between light-bulbs," he said. His rural communications wish list: Communities better served with distance learning and telemedicine, among other services.

Earlier in the day, a panel of top media executives - joined by Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates - took aim at the satellite competition. Gates said the wired technology beats the dish, and added, "the cable platform has the interactivity satellite doesn't."

Digital copyright was a concern that surfaced quite often among Gates and the executives during the discussion.

In addition to the Microsoft founder, panelists included Comcast President and CEO Brian Roberts, AOL Time Warner Chairman and CEO Richard Parsons, and Viacom President and COO Mel Karmazin.

From SkyReport (http://www.skyreport.com) (Used with Permission)

[Mark Holtz]

Any way you slice it, in the smaller communities, you will need to modify the SHIVA legislation in order to allow the importation of local networks where an affiliate simply does not exist.

There should be an allowance to stations like WBQC who are willing to provide the equipment in order for them to be carried despite the fact that they are a low-power station.

In addition, there has to be something in order to prevent stations which are simply "repeaters" of a HSN or Religious feed which is already carried by the DBS provider. As an example, a typical Network affiliate carries syndicated programming and produces a local newscast, thus should be carried. KUVS may carry a majority of Univisions feed, but also produces a local (and well produced) newscast that airs in prime time. But, from what I can see, some of the religious stations do not produce their own programming content.

It would also be helpful if the stations could run a feed to one location instead of several locations. As a bone to throw to the cable companies, the multi-channel providers can then tie into this POP to grab the feed and pipe it to their subscriber base.

I wouldn't hold my breath for both Dish and DirecTV to share satellite capacity in order to carry more locals though.

[Jacob S]

I believe this is the reason why some are in fact pirating satellite and I have heard that a lot of them still have a subscription still. Some cannot get their networks and have to do this to get those stations or they do not offer a package for EVERYTHING including all ppv's.

Perhaps when more local markets come out piracy will come down.

I wonder how many more viewers of the local signals are being gained because of the locals being available on satellite vs those that could not get the signal before.