Senate Version Of Extension Bill Includes 30-Day Reprieve For Satellite License

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Senate Version Of Extension Bill Includes 30-Day Reprieve For Satellite License
John Eggerton -- , 2/24/2010 4:34:23 PM

It looks like Congress will give itself another 30 days to figure out how to reauthorize the license that allows satellite operators to carry distant network signals.

According to a draft of a Senate bill extending the deadlines on a number of items, the extension passed late last year, moving the sunset deadline for the satellite bill from Dec. 31 to Feb. 28, would be moved to March 28.

The bill will have to be approved before March 1, or the license expires and distant signal viewers would lose access to out-of-market affiliate signals.

According to sources, there was an effort floated on Feb. 22 to secure passage of a 15-day extension to the satellite bill by unanimous consent, which means without a floor vote but also without any objections from even a single legislator.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) two weeks ago stripped a new version of that jobs bill of a number of those unrelated provisions, including a full version of the Satellite Television Extension and Localism Act (STELA).

That Senate version of STELA would renew satellite operators' blanket license to import distant network-affiliated TV stations to viewers in markets where they can't receive a viewable local version. It also creates an incentive for Dish Network to deliver local-into-local service, establishes a new timetable for the delivery of high-definition signals of noncommercial stations, a new method for determining who is eligible to receive the signals, and mandates a series of reports on, among other things, whether the blanket license should be phased out.