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DBS' 4% Solution
SkyREPORT
No doubt some DBS competitors will jump all over this one, seeking a government-mandated "solution" to boost their own bottom lines. But the FCC should hold firm on that 4% DBS public-interest requirement. For one thing with services like C-Span, Hispanic Information and Telecommunications Network, NASA TV, Free Speech TV, and Link TV, both DiRECTV and DiSH are more than fulfilling their national requirements to devote 4% of their bandwidth to noncommercial programming. For another, tying DBS to local public interest requirements would sap its national bandwidth ... forcing less robust programming offerings for paying subscribers. And DBS competitors know that very well.
This whole subject comes up via the Commission's "Future of Media" review which features public interest programming. In one of their occasional, yes-we-can-agree-on-this moments, DiRECTV and DiSH have offered a written exparte presentation (see attachment) reminding the FCC of how onerous local service requirements would be to satellite.
"The Future of Media review ... should recognize that although the DBS platform is well suited to serve the public’s information needs with national—and even international— noncommercial programming, it is not suited to provide local public interest programming," the duo noted, pointing to their national rather than local footprints. As for spot-beam capacity, the duo point out that these services are needed for the carriage of additional local broadcast stations "or for new or non- duplicative broadcast stations seeking carriage in markets where a DBS provider offers local broadcast stations." And the carriage of local stations on nationally available signals would be a waste in the extreme. "In sum, the capacity literally does not exist to support a local public interest obligation on satellite operators," write the DBS services.
Let's hope the FCC is listening.
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