House lawmakers took the wraps off legislation aimed at reauthorizing the Satellite Home Viewer Improvement Act (SHVIA), which includes a proposed mandate requiring satellite TV companies to deliver local TV to consumers via a single dish.
The legislation, introduced in the House Telecommunications and the Internet Subcommittee during a hearing Thursday, took aim at EchoStar's DISH Network and its offering of a number of local TV channels via a second dish for a select set of markets. The bill would give satellite TV companies deadlines to place local TV channels delivered to consumers on a single dish, but it doesn't prevent the companies from delivering other types of programming via a second dish.
Several lawmakers offered support for the single-dish/locals item, including Rep. Charles Gonzalez (D-Texas). Gonzales said a number of stations in his home state are put on a second dish, including Spanish-language channels and programming aimed at Hispanic audiences.
Representatives of the broadcast community testifying before the subcommittee also voiced support for the proposed mandate.
David Moskowitz, senior vice president and general counsel at EchoStar, defended the use of a second dish for delivery of locals, saying the practice puts scarce spectrum to maximum use and allows the company to deliver local TV to a large number of markets. He also emphasized to the panel that the second dish and installation are free to consumers, and channels received on a second dish are delivered completely transparent to the viewer.
Draft House legislation for the satellite TV law renewal also includes a mandate to modify and improve the testing and waiver process for determining availability of off-air local TV channels, used to figure out eligibility for distant network signals. The draft also provides an extension of the statutory license allowing satellite TV to deliver distant network programming, though those testifying for the satellite TV business and lawmakers suggested that satellite TV should be given a permanent license for the service.
Do those Dumb asses know that you can't fit all of the locals on Dish500. I guess they'll revist this again next year when they are complaining that the SuperDish is too large.
Maybe Charlie can get them to give him 32 DBS TPs at 105.5 or 115
Several lawmakers offered support for the single-dish/locals item, including Rep. Charles Gonzalez (D-Texas). Gonzales said a number of stations in his home state are put on a second dish, including Spanish-language channels and programming aimed at Hispanic audiences
There are other stations on the wings, not just spanish channels.
Also, Direct is going to do a 2 dish solution for locals. Why arent they in here?
They may have opened up a can of worms on this
The bill would give satellite TV companies deadlines to place local TV channels delivered to consumers on a single dish, but it doesn't prevent the companies from delivering other types of programming via a second dish.
ok...then do the following:
-move all int'l off wings and onto 121
-put locals on the wings (61.5 for eastern cities and 148 for western cities)
There...problem solved. If you read above, all they are mad about is one dish for locals, use the Dish500 for all programming, and a wing for new locals.
Also, people whine now about compression, what the hell would they say when they try to squeeze more channels on a TP so some people don't need 2 dishes on their roof?
No, you don't understand the 2 dish issue. It's that they are spitting locals in a single market between dishes (e.g. some of NY locals are on 61.5). They can put a full market on a second dish.
I would allow a 2 dish solution, but I would make some changes.
#1. If a 2nd dish is needed for locals it would HAVE to be installed at the time of initial installation (for new installs)
#2. For current customers who have locals but need a 2nd dish, the Dish would have to be installed within 30 days. (not the call and ask like you have to now) Make it automatic.
I don't see a problem needing 2 dishes to get all of your channels (packages an locals) but the call and ask, then wait forever B.S. has to stop.
I suppose if I had to get a 61.5 Dish to get ALL my locals, I would. But right now, I get all of them on a 119 spotbeam, so a Dish500 is sufficient for me.
No, you don't understand the 2 dish issue. It's that they are spitting locals in a single market between dishes (e.g. some of NY locals are on 61.5). They can put a full market on a second dish.
Thing is, there are a lot of E* subs who could get a few extra locals on a second dish, but they can't find a place to put it. The second dish requires a whole different line of sight, and that's bound to be a problem in some installations, especially apartments.
And my guess is that there are even more people who watch the second-dish locals so infrequently that they don't want to be bothered with it at all. IMHO, it's this group that has the NAB-funded Congress in a tither.
Not surprised that some of these political boobs are trying to make something so simple into something so complicated.
Of course when you look at the tax code one shouldn't be surprised.
We use a second Dish for some local stations, DISH came out and installed free with no charge for DISH. We live in a highly restrictive convenent community, no complaints from anyone.
With all the problems in the world, these morons are wasting our time and money about a second Dish.
Stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid.
-Earl
Yankee born Southern bred and thinking about running for congress.
Maybe I'm a little dense, but what's the uproar about a second dish? For those local networks, Echostar comes out and provides and installs the extra dish free. Is this really some great problem that really needs our government's attention???? Maybe I can get a house bill to address the stale potato chips carried by some stores.
This is really the solution, the present practice of Dish and D* duplicating locals is moronic. Charlie also mentioned that if Congress did away with the stupid retransmission agreements on locals, he would provide them for free. Hopefully Congress will let this happen. Only one problem on sharing though, Dish is Nagravision and D* is another system. If both are DVB, then run them FTA!!!
Q: What's the opposite of "progress"?
A: "Congress"
House lawmakers took the wraps off legislation aimed at reauthorizing the Satellite Home Viewer Improvement Act (SHVIA), which includes a proposed mandate requiring satellite TV companies to deliver local TV to consumers via a single dish.
These nimrods must think E* is staffed by magicians. Somehow they can bend the laws of physics regarding how much data can be squeezed onto a carrier wave.
This is just going to make things worse. Heavier compression, maybe some dropped channels. This is bad news.
Of course they did. It's the sleazy political thing to do.
TonyM said:
ok...then do the following:
-move all int'l off wings and onto 121
-put locals on the wings (61.5 for eastern cities and 148 for western cities)
There...problem solved. If you read above, all they are mad about is one dish for locals, use the Dish500 for all programming, and a wing for new locals.
One small problem with moving all the locals to the wing birds--there are no spot beam antennas there. You can't just move the main birds, that would interrupt programming. I also suspect that the "look angle" to the continental US would make a spot beam antenna design very difficult.
If the government give's E* the time needed to launch E10 to 110 in 05, and if E* adds a 3rd up-link center, they should not have any problem moving all wing locals to spotbeams. I suspect E* will be forced to do this because what the broadcasters want, the broadcasters generally get, they are that powerful.
The only reason why Dish chose this 2 dish situation that split the main networks from the religious and Mexican stations was out of spite for the FCC and the Must Carry Rules. Charlie only wanted to carry the big 4 networks in each city and use the super stations pack for the rest. This would allow Dish to make extra money off each locals pack with bundled prices of 8.99 for the locals and superstations ( WB and UPN). The must carry rules where if you carry one station in a town you must carry all stations in the town if the other stations request it. This irked old Charlie so he decided to make it nearly impossible to get the other channels by splitting them off and putting them on the side sats. I don't think there is anything wrong with using the 2 dish solution but they should keep all the channels in a locals pack together on one satellite dish. The FCC has not been happy with Charlie since he started this convoluted 2 dish situation but they have looked the other way since Dish will install at the customer's request, a free dish for the few channels on the side sats. IN this way Charlie was getting to add just the big networks and he kept the other must carry channels on the lesser viewed side satellites. I just don't want the picture quality of my locals to suffer in order to make the FCC happy. I agree they should wait till Dish gets a few more sats up and a new uplink center and then they should give Dish a deadline to get all the locals in a pack on the same satellite dish.
I really don't see why DirecTV and Dish can't agree on a contract to just share locals. It would help out both companies a lot and they would each have more of a competitive edge against cable.
Yeah, but look at what DirecTV is currently using: one spot-beam satellite, and a CONUS satellite at 119, for a total of 64 markets. One more spot beam satellite, and the total will move to 106 markets.
Dish Network is using two spot-beam satellites, two wing CONUS satellites, and two leased FSS satellites to provide 111 markets.
Of all markets Dish Network provides, only Grand Junction is completely on a wing slot, while many markets are completely on the FSS satellites at 105 and 121. If this bill does become law, Dish Network will simply need to juggle the must-carry locals on the wing satellites with the spot-beam satellites at 110 and 119. This will force more markets to be delivered from only 61.5 or 148, or even the Superdish.
I really don't see why DirecTV and Dish can't agree on a contract to just share locals. It would help out both companies a lot and they would each have more of a competitive edge against cable.
D* and E* use different kinds of transport and scrambling. Even unscrambled, the signals are not compatable.
As for the second dish, once E* has their 2005 bird in place they will be able to pull the "extra" locals off the wings and meet the lawmaker's demands, without overcompression. What they will do with the side slots remains to be seen. Plenty of speculation in other threads.
I live in an apartment and I have 2 dishes @ 61.5, 110/119 on my patio. I'm thinking about adding a 3rd dish for Voom--all on one pole (dishtree). My locals are split between 61.5 and 110.
All E* has to do is put all locals for a given DMA on one sat whether it be 61.5, 105, 110 or 148. A single dish solution for each city. Guess Charlie didn't think of that way back when.
It's also funny how D* carries considerably fewer locals than E*. I've heard D* will eventually have to go the 2nd-dish route as they increase the number of locals they carry.
Geronimo said:
allow DISH and DTV to share locals at 110 and 119.
This is the best solution, in my opinion, and not just for locals. Most of the channels each system carries are duplicated across both systems. Considering the cost of putting satellites in orbit, this seems extremely wasteful to me.
While I understand the technical differences between the two systems, I still feel the current system is wasteful. After all, the different phone companies don't string their own lines, and the different railroad companies don't have their own, independent tracks they run on. Sharing satellites seems logical to me, and I hope some means can be found to make it a reality. But having Charlie and Rupert agree to cooperate with each other? Probably not in this lifetime. :nono2:
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