Senate Commerce Lines Up STELA Witnesses

National Cable & Telecommunications Association President Michael Powell and National Association of Broadcasters President Gordon Smith will be among the witnesses at a Senate Commerce Committee hearing April 1 on reauthorization of the Satellite Television Extension and Localism Act (STELA).

Also on the witness list will be Bill Lake, FCC Media Bureau chief, DirecTV EVP Michael Palkovic, and Tivo President Tom Rogers.

STELA is the legislation the established a blanket license for satellite operators to deliver distant network-affiliated TV station signals into markets where there was not a viewable local affiliate of that network.

It also grants the FCC the authority to mandate good faith retransmission consent bargaining.

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.