The fight over renewing the satellite TV license for another half a decade has begun in earnest.

The National Association of Broadcasters is circulating a policy paper on Capitol Hill advocating for not renewing the STELAR law (Satellite Television Extension and Localism Act) when it expires at the end of 2019.

STELAR, which was last renewed 2014, reauthorizes the satellite compulsory distant signal license for five years. But last time around it was also a vehicle for some cable-friendly changes to retrans, including renewing the FCC's enforcement of good faith retrans negotiations and extending the commission's prohibition on coordinated retrans negotiations among noncommonly owned TV stations in a market from the top four to all stations.

NAB says it expects MVPDs to push for renewal, but contends there is no justification for compelling the out-or-market carriage to broadcast affiliate-unserved homes given that that number is dropping and in all 210 markets DISH and DirecTV are providing local-into-local TV station carriage.

As for the half-million homes that are still getting imported TV signals thanks to STELAR, NAB says they can be "better served through private business negotiations between satellite companies and local broadcasters."

NAB says the provisions set to expire--and which it argues should expire--are the "discounted" compulsory license, the retrans exemption for the imported out-of-market signals, and the good faith negotiation requirement. 

"There is no policy justification or technological reason for STELAR to be reauthorized. The time has come to stop subsidizing billion-dollar satellite TV companies and to instead provide viewers with the local news, weather and emergency information they want and need. Congress should let STELAR expire," NAB said.

“If Congress fails to re-authorize STELAR, hundreds of thousands of consumers, mostly in rural areas, would lose their broadcast channels from satellite," said Trent Duffy, spokesperson for the cable and satellite-backed American Television Alliance. "Congress should not only re-authorize STELAR so rural America can continue receiving all their broadcast channels, but also modernize the retransmission consent rules, which currently favor broadcasters at the expense of consumers and competition.”

A dozen senators (11 Democrats and an Independent) have asked the Federal Communications Commission to rethink its proposal to assume cable operators have local market competition and thus can get out from under basic-cable rate regulation.

Among the FCC's directives from Congress in the STELAR Act satellite reauthorization bill that passed last December was streamlining the process for effective-competition petitions for small cable operators. The FCC decided to propose a broader change, reversing the presumption that cable operators of all sizes were not subject to competition, given that the agency had granted virtually all such requests recently.

But in a letter to FCC chairman Tom Wheeler, the senators, including longtime cable rate critic Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn), said they believe reversing the presumption "is contrary to Congress’ direction and may increase the rates that consumers pay for cable TV while reducing the number of channels offered in a cable company’s lowest-cost package.

"[R]ather than focusing on reforms targeting the specific needs of these small cable operators," they added, "the Commission’s proposal to implement Section 111 goes beyond Congress’ stated intent, providing unnecessary regulatory benefits to large cable companies."

The FCC has a June 1 deadline to come out with an order, according to STELAR.

In addition to Franken, signing on to the letter were Sens. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), Ed Markey (D-Mass.), Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), Bernard Sanders (I-Vt.), Jack Reed (D-R.I.), Tom Udall (D-N.M.), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), Tammy Baldwin (D-Wisc.) and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.).