WASHINGTON, D.C. - The U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation held a subcommittee hearing today on Reauthorization of the Satellite Home Viewer Extension and Reauthorization Act of 2004.

 

Mr. Robert M. Gabrielli, Senior Vice President for Programming & Distribution, DIRECTV, Inc.

 

Mr. R. Stanton Dodge, Executive Vice President, Secretary, and General Counsel, DISH Network, LLC

 

Mr. Paul Karpowicz, President, Meredith Corporation

 

Ms. Lonna Thompson, Acting Chief Operating Officer and General Counsel, Association of Public Television Stations

 

 

“Now, we are looking to reauthorize SHVERA.  That means extending certain communications and copyright provisions, but it also provides us with a valuable opportunity to examine whether consumers across the country are adequately served by existing law.  In West Virginia, DIRECTV recently began providing local service to the Beckley area, which I applaud, but that still leaves the Parkersburg and Wheeling markets without local channels.  In reauthorizing SHVERA, I firmly believe we must examine how all consumers in even the most rural regions can gain access to local news, sports, and community programming.”

“Choice means competition.  It means lower prices.  It means more programming innovation.  It means more viewing packages to choose from.  And it means greater incentives for companies to develop new digital technology for program viewing.  To keep these good things going, we must focus on what aspects of SHVERA need updating and what aspects of the law need adjustment—to ensure that consumers across the country benefit fully from the viewing choices that SHVERA makes possible.”

“Consumers prefer local service and the law rightly reflects this.  But we cannot yet deliver all of the thousands of local broadcast stations in every market.  Where our subscribers cannot receive local service, the law should let us give them distant signals instead.  What the law should not do is require subscribers to rely on expensive rotating rooftop antennas to get intermittent over-the-air reception.”

“DISH has launched local-into-local service in 182 markets, including Puerto Rico, covering approximately 98 percent of households nationwide in less than a decade’s time.  This is a considerable achievement that would not have been possible absent the regulatory and legal structure Congress created to encourage and foster such investment.  The job, however, is not complete until all consumers have the opportunity to view their local channels.”

 

“Localism is a bedrock principle, rooted in the Communications Act of 1934 (Act), that has guided both Congress and the FCC in implementing communications policy for decades.  Localism has also been an integral part of satellite carriage policies since they were adopted in 1988.  These policies promoting localism have benefited all Americans, whether they watch television over-the-air or subscribe to cable or satellite.”

“Public television stations nationwide were early adopters of digital technology and have been at the forefront of developing content and maximizing the new digital capacity to serve our core missions of localism, education and diversity.  Local public television stations are utilizing their multicasting capabilities to provide dedicated channels for public affairs programming and programming designed to reach underserved audiences.  In a time of declining news coverage, the importance of these services cannot be underestimated.”

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