Broadcasters Hit Hill to Fight Bill

A traveling party of about a dozen Fox affiliate leaders will descend on Washington this week to voice its concern for a bill co-sponsored by Rep Mike Ross (D-Arkansas). The group says the bill could rewrite the Designated Market Area map and put a major drain on station revenue. The Ross bill and the Satellite Home Viewer Extension and Reauthorization Act (SHVERA) are top priorities for broadcasters in the coming months. Both pertain to the rules that govern a station's right to market-exclusivity for its programming. SHVERA, which the FCC says "created an opportunity for subscribers to qualify, via signal-strength tests, to receive distant digital television broadcast signals from satellite carriers," comes up for renewal every five years, and is due for reauthorization by the end of 2009.