Senators Seek Satellite TV Probe

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Colorado’s two senators have asked the Senate Judiciary Committee to look into the long-running dispute between the nation’s two largest satellite television companies.


Senators Wayne Allard, a Republican, and Ken Salazar, a Democrat, sent a letter to the committee last week asking it to examine whether El Segundo-based DirecTV Group Inc., which is controlled by News Corp., “has engaged in behavior that would threaten the viability of the satellite TV market.”


Colorado is home to EchoStar Communications Corp., provider of DISH Network, DirecTV’s main competitor.


The dispute involves a long-running legal battle over the re-transmission of “distant network” channels. Satellite TV customers in small markets that are not home to local network affiliates receive their network programming from network stations in distant markets. The networks filed a lawsuit in 1998 accusing satellite companies of offering distant network signals to customers in areas that weren’t supposed to get them. Earlier this spring, a federal appeals court in Atlanta ruled on the side of the networks.


Last week, EchoStar and the affiliates of ABC, NBC and CBS, as well as affiliates of the Fox Network, agreed to a $100 million settlement that would allow the company to continue transmitting their signals. Stations that air Fox content but are not owned by Fox agreed to the settlement but the 25 stations that are owned by Fox , which is also a subsidiary of News Corp. , did not join the settlement. Instead, Fox filed a request for an injunction that would prevent EchoStar from transmitting the signals from any of the networks.


At the same time, DirecTV began running ads in some of the affected markets in what EchoStar says is an attempt to pick up its customers. Critics of Fox say the broadcaster and its parent company are using the court case to take away customers from EchoStar. Fox maintains they have done nothing wrong.


The two senators from Colorado also added in their letter that Fox’s rejection of the settlement “raises serious questions about whether the News Corporation, using Fox Network and DirecTV, has engaged in behavior that would threaten the viability of the satellite TV market. These developments merit diligent oversight by the Judiciary Committee.” The senators also added that they want to “ensure that Fox’s decision to pull out of negotiations was not motivated by a desire to ensure that DirecTV wins the market share that will be abandoned should EchoStar be forced to turn off its distant signals.”

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