Tell Congress to Save Your Connection to the TV Shows You Love
This year the number of television blackouts in the U.S. broke a new record: 230. Over the last decade the number of blackouts has increased exponentially as broadcasters have tried to take advantage of a dated set of laws to charge excessive rates by holding consumers' content hostage.
If Congress allows the Satellite Television Extension and Localism Act Reauthorization (STELAR) to expire at the end of 2019, 870,000 satellite customers, many who reside in rural areas, will lose access to their network stations.
Our elected officials must retain the tools that allow consumers to hold broadcasters accountable for bad and unfair practices - they must act to reauthorize STELAR this year.
What can you do about it?
If you believe that consumers deserve to be treated fairly and are entitled to receive the content that they pay for at a fair price, we urge you to tell your elected representatives in Congress and urge them to reauthorize STELAR and adopt additional TV marketplace reforms in 2019. Here's how you can take action...
STELAR includes two key provisions that protect consumers:
ACCESS TO NETWORK TV PROGRAMMING
The distant signal license ensures that satellite customers maintain access to network TV programming, including major sporting events and broadcast news. Without this protection in place, 870,000 customers primarily in rural areas stand to lose access to programming.
This license is also critical to provide RV enthusiasts, tailgaters and long-haul truckers the ability to access their network TV while traveling across the country.
FAIR PRICING FOR SATELLITE SERVICE
The "good faith" clause establishes some basic rules of the road to help ensure that for broadcasters and cable and satellite providers both negotiate fairly.
The good faith rules provide an important backstop to retransmission consent agreement negotiations. Without the good faith clause in place, there will be no mechanism in place to stop broadcasters from engaging in bad faith negotiations in order to extract exorbitant fees, which ultimately get passed down to consumers.
