Broadcast industry lobbyists are scrambling to derail an effort to include provisions in a satellite TV bill that could gut retransmission consent rights of television stations. TVNewsCheck says that the bill would free cable TV operators of their current obligation to carry retransmission stations on the basic cable tiers.
The satellite TV bill being considered would reauthorize the Satellite Television Extension and Localism Act (STELA), a measure that allows satellite TV services to retransmit signals of distant TV stations into some local markets. STELA has been a key target for the pay TV industry’s retrans reform advocates because it’s one of the only media-related bills thought to have a chance of being approved by Congress this year.
