SBCA TO SEEK ‘TECHNICAL IMPROVEMENTS’ IN SHVIA IN 2004 REVIEW
MONTEREY, Cal. -- The DBS industry is looking to sweeten slightly its position under the Satellite Home Viewer Improvement Act when it comes up for review next year, Satellite Bcstg. & Communications Assn. Pres. Andrew Wright said Wed. “We're looking for reauthorization with just a few little technical improvements, to make us a little more competitive with cable,” he said in an address to a Satellite Entertainment conference here. He said he wasn’t ready to disclose the changes.
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Wright did say the DBS industry should gird for opposition from cable and the MPAA, and it needed to prevent the legislation from becoming “the Christmas tree for everyone’s wishes” inasmuch as “it’s the only piece of must- move legislation on the docket this Congress.”
DBS suffered a setback Tues. when the FCC rejected industry requests to reconsider its authorization of MVDDS (Multichannel Video Distribution & Data Service), as proposed by Northpoint, despite satellite’s interference arguments, Wright said. Wright said the decision “disregards” the interest of DBS subscribers and ignored tests demonstrating wireless cable providers would cause significant interference to them. But the Commission action set up a lawsuit challenging the decision, and “I believe we ultimately will be successful,” he said. On a later panel, lawyer Steve Coran said he didn’t see a business case for a new broadband technology: “I think it’s vapor and it’s a lobbying campaign run amok.” He said he anticipated few bidders if an auction were held as scheduled in June. The FCC postponed a preparatory meeting set for Thurs. Apart from the real interference concerns, however, MVDDS may benefit from “a greater tolerance to accept multiple uses of the same spectrum,” as encouraged more generally by FCC policy, Coran said.
Piracy “is a very serious issue,” Wright said: “This is an issue in which cable and satellite ought to be cooperating… No one has more incentive to stop piracy than the platform providers.” DBS providers’ enforcement has become higher profile and more effective, he said: “Without a sustained effort, it could get out of control,” Wright said, but he didn’t see content providers’ being close to withholding programming over security concerns. New data from conference organizer Carmel Group estimated the number of U.S. satellite pirates at 2.1 million in 2002, 2.9 million this year, 3.5 million in 2004 and 5.2 million in 2008.
The satellite industry is fighting bills in 10 states that would tax its service, Wright said, and had beaten them in 3 states. The industry’s position is that DBS shouldn’t be taxed -- but if it must be, all multichannel service should receive the same treatment “to keep the playing field level,” he said. Cable franchise fees aren’t a tax but compensation for infrastructure burdens, Wright said. But Coran said cable could argue that whatever the labels, “it’s still 5 percent out of some person’s pocket.”
High-speed Internet access remains a great opportunity for satellite, Wright said. So far, it’s been a disappointment, he acknowledged, but broadband is “a lightning-rod issue” in Congress, the FCC and White House. He said “satellite can bridge the digital divide” that cable- modem and DSL created with their “slow and unpredictable rollout.” The $156 million investment last week by major players in WildBlue’s next-generation service show “the future is exciting for Internet via satellite,” Wright said.
Satellite can meet the challenge of cable video-on- demand, he said. DBS’s PVR opportunity is shown from a sign- up rate of 20% of households where cable VOD is available, Wright said. But the cable service will be available to 37 million homes by late 2006, so “the threat is real,” he said.