House Judiciary Subcommittee Schedules Satellite Hearing

The House Subcommittee on Courts, Intellectual Property and the Internet has scheduled a hearing on satellite legislation, specifically distant signal importation, for Sept. 10, according to a notice from the committee.

The parent Judiciary Committee and Energy & Commerce both have jurisdiction over The Satellite Television Extension and Localism Act (STELA), which must be reauthorized by the end of 2014 or it will expire. STELA provides the blanket license allowing for the importation of distant network TV station signals.

Witnesses for the hearing are Stanton Dodge, executive VP and general counsel at DISH; Earle MacKenzie from the American Cable Association; Gerard Waldron from the National Association of Broadcasters; James Campbell, VP, CenturyLink; Robert Garrett from Major League Baseball; and Don Lowery, senior VP, Nielsen.

The House Communications Subcommittee has already held one STELA hearing and is expected to hold a second this month.

John Eggerton

Contributing editor John Eggerton has been an editor and/or writer on media regulation, legislation and policy for over four decades, including covering the FCC, FTC, Congress, the major media trade associations, and the federal courts. In addition to Multichannel News and Broadcasting + Cable, his work has appeared in Radio World, TV Technology, TV Fax, This Week in Consumer Electronics, Variety and the Encyclopedia Britannica.