Court Upholds FCC DBS Local-Signal Test

COURT UPHOLDS FCC DBS LOCAL-SIGNAL TEST
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
A court has upheld the FCC's method of determining which households receive a local signal and thus are not eligible to receive an imported distant TV station signal from a satellite provider. The U.S. court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Tuesday denied an EchoStar appeal of the FCC's congressionally-mandated model for determining signal strength. EchoStar is already facing the prospect of pulling all its distant signals after an Atlanta Federal Appeals Court in May, in a harshly-worded opinion, declared: "We have found no indication that EchoStar was ever interested in complying with" laws regulating how satellite TV companies deliver broadcast stations to their customers. EchoStar is permitted to deliver so-called "distant" signals only to homes that receive no other stations over the air. But EchoStar’s method of determining which customers were eligible for the distant signals has been a bone of contention, and litigation, for years. Broadcasters complain that the company abuses the rules and violates the Satellite Home Viewer Act by regularly delivering the wrong market’s stations to its subscribers.
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6356370?display=Breaking+News

* EchoStar Looks to Supreme Court for Relief
http://www.multichannel.com/article/CA6356776.html?display=Breaking+News