Retrans Looking Less Likely As Part Of STELA

The pay TV industry’s effort to include major retransmission consent reform provisions in satellite TV legislation this year appears iffy at best — at least according to key congressional staffers Monday.

“We have made it very clear in the House side that STELA [the Satellite Television Extension and Localism Act] is not the right place to address retransmission consent reform,” said Grace Koh, a House Energy and Commerce Committee staffer, during a panel session at the NAB Show in Las Vegas.

“This is not something we want to wade into lightly,” Koh added.

Also during the same session, Shawn Bone, a top Senate Commerce Committee staffer, said that the committee’s chairman—Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) — has previously taken the position that retrans disputes are between two companies, and should remain that way.

“There’s a great deal of reticence — I think both from Chairman Rockefeller’s perspective and broadly on the Senate Commerce Committee — from intervening in these disputes,” Bone said, although adding that, “nothing’s off the table.”

Koh also said House GOP committee leaders believe a cable TV industry request to include a reform provision in STELA that would eliminate the must-buy rule should be shifted to a planned multi-year review of the entire Communications Act.

“This is one of those larger issues that needs to be deferred to a longer, harder look,” Koh said.

Added the Senate’s Bone: “The chairman [Rockefeller] hasn’t taken any options off the table, but the basic tier isn’t something he has said anything about.”

The must-buy regulation requires cable TV operators to include broadcast TV signals in the basic tier that all of their customers have to buy before they can purchase other programming options.

The opinions of Koh and Bone are important because they work for key committee chairmen who will have a major say over what provisions are included in STELA this year. Koh works for House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton (R-Mich.), while Bone reports to Rockefeller.

STELA, which is widely expected to be reauthorized before it expires at the end of the year, clears the way for satellite TV companies to retransmit distant TV signals into some local markets.