Broadcasters Quash Proposal to Change Basic Tier Rule [Updated]

Draft bill won't kick broadcasters off

Update: Rep. Greg Walden (R-Ore.), chairman of the communications and technology subcommittee, on Thursday released a discussion draft to reauthorize the law that allows satellite providers to carry distant TV signals in markets where subscribers can't pick up the TV station over the air. The draft would extend the law for five years, covering the 1.5 million Directv subscribers that would suffer if the law expired at the end of the year. While the draft legislation does not have the kind of major retransmission reform desired by cable and satellite companies, the draft does provide some relief, limiting joint retransmission consent negotiations, eliminating the sweeps week prohibition on signal changes and giving cable companies more set-top box flexibility by eliminating the set-top box integration ban.

The broadcast lobby may not be what it was in its heyday, but it's still got plenty of muscle, managing to quash an onerous bill provision could...

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