WASHINGTON, D.C. — If there ever was a more straightforward argument as to why the Satellite Television Extension and Localism Act (STELAR) should be reauthorized, it was this: hundreds of thousands of consumers will lose access to network television programming.
Why? Broadcasters are to blame, and they’re flush with millions in cash thanks to all of the retrans fees they collect, claims a top AT&T executive.
The comments, which many broadcast TV station owners may snarl at, weren’t exactly satisfactory to Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Roger Wicker, either.
With a five-year renewal of STELAR up for debate and discussion, Wicker closed the nearly two-hour hearing held Wednesday in the Hart Senate Office Building with a query as to whether a different time frame should be considered.
“We would prefer that this is permanently enacted,” said Robert Thun, the SVP/Content and Programming at AT&T and its DirecTV arm.
Thun has emerged as perhaps Public Enemy No. 1 in the fight to sunset STELAR.
Thun, in his second tenure at AT&T, served as EVP/Business Operations at one of the nation’s biggest broadcast media companies, Univision Communications, from March 2012 through June 2013. From March 1998 to June 2005 he was VP of National Accounts, Strategy and Business Development at Fox Cable Networks.
Now, he’s pushing AT&T Chairman/CEO Randall Stephenson’s point of view on a topic that has riled everyone from executives at CBS to NAB leader and former Oregon Senator Gordon Smith.
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Why does AT&T’s Thun want STELAR permanently enacted?
He argued that DirecTV’s cable competitors have “a permanent license,” and says he’s not sure why DirecTV would be treated any differently.
But, it is this argument, repeated across Wednesday’s two-hour Senate Commerce Committee reauthorization hearing on STELAR, that has cemented DirecTV’s stance on bringing any nearest-to-local stations to far-flung communities in the smallest of DMAs.
“STELAR provides us with access to network television they wouldn’t otherwise get, and taking STELAR away would only harm those customers, and they would not have another choice to get that content,” Thun said.
But, they do. It’s called Dish Network, or the local cable television services provider in a given market.
And, that’s what Emily Barr of Graham Media Network emphasized in her witness testimony at the hearing.
The two contrasting views on the need to have STELAR reauthorized piqued Wicker’s attention.
“Ms. Barr, you want zero and Mr. Thun wants forever,” he said. Addressing Barr, Wicker asked for her thoughts on what Thun said.
“I think the five-year cycle has created more harm than anything else, and I would say that we don’t need it for five more minutes, never mind five more years,” Barr explained. “We need to be focused on what we do locally and the best way to do that is to allow us to continue to do our local jobs.”
BAD SIGNALS, BROADCASTER PROBLEM
With minutes left in the hearing, Thun thought that it was worth saying again that, if STELAR, goes away, 870,000 customers are going to lose access to TV broadcasts.
Wicker immediately responded by addressing Barr, who noted that Thun’s statement is “flatly incorrect.”
He asked, “How can two people of goodwill have such a disparity?”
Barr replied, “Because it is my understanding, sir, that AT&T is making a decision not to serve those markets with the local stations. That is a business decision. They are certainly entitled to make that decision. But it is not something they are incapable of doing. It is just something they choose not to do.”
Thun wished to clarify Barr’s assessment. “I think there’s some conflation going on here that’s confusing people,” he said. “In the markets where we take an over-the-air signal … we are not using the distant signal in the middle of Helena, Montana. In the middle of Helena, Montana, the only vehicle for us to provide broadcast signals is through the antenna, which we provide to our customers for free and for which we provide a discount to our subscribers.”
He added that it is the outskirts of the DMAs where “the broadcasters fail to deliver a signal” is where these distant signals come in to play. Or, Thun added, “in the case of the long-haul truckers and the recreational vehicle, those users come to play as well, which are important constituents.”
But the notion that taking STELAR down is going to close a loophole where DirecTV provides broadcast signals “in the middle of markets” is patently untrue, Thun testified — even though his statement made it clear that DirecTV’s channel lineup in Helena didn’t include any local stations, and that the over-the-air antenna was its solution.
AT&T
Wicker honed in on Thun’s comments that broadcasters fail to deliver a signal, and how Barr explained that a station can only serve a specific geographic region based on its signal contour.
How can this be resolved, in Thun’s view? “If they put repeaters in the outskirts of the areas, I guess … I’m not familiar with the technology of what MHz they are allowed to broadcast at, but I believe that there’s technologies to put repeaters on its outskirts of these DMAs in order to afford customers access to the signals.”
Is that expensive, Wicker wondered?
“I think they’ve got a windfall of money coming from the retrans fees that we pay, so they’ve got plenty of money to pay for it,” Thun remarked as those in the crowd laughed and gasped simultaneously at his comment.
Wicker looked on inquisitively. Barr held her own.
“We know that other companies … have technologically figured out a way to take our local signals and put them on our services, and AT&T could do this,” Barr said. “We know Dish is doing it … it is just a question of having the will to do it. I just don’t think, at this moment, that AT&T has the will to do that.”
