STUPAK APPLAUDS DELIVERY OF LOCAL PROGRAMMING TO ALPENA MARKET VIA SATELLITE U.S. Congressman Bart Stupak (D-Menominee) applauded satellite provider DISH Network for launching local channels in the Alpena Designated Market Area (DMA)
BigNews.Biz - Jun 06,2010 - (From PoliticalNews.me)
WASHINGTON, DC – U.S. Congressman Bart Stupak (D-Menominee) applauded satellite provider DISH Network for launching local channels in the Alpena Designated Market Area (DMA), which covers Alpena and Alcona Counties. With this launch 17,420 northern Michigan households will have access to local television channels via satellite for the first time.
“This launch will provide local channels via satellite to households in every Michigan media market for the first time and is an important step toward making sure every American has access to the community news, weather alerts, and emergency and safety information local channels provide,” Stupak said. “I am pleased DISH Network acted so quickly to launch these local channels in northern Michigan and across rural America following the President’s bill signing last week.”
Satellite customers in Alpena and Alcona Counties will now be able to access channel WBKB (CBS) and WCML (PBS). In addition to the Alpena DMA, DISH Network announced they were launching local-into-local service in all 29 DMAs nationwide currently without access to local channels by satellite.
Last Thursday, the President signed into law S.3333, the Satellite Television Extension and Localism Act of 2010. The new law includes a key provision modeled after legislation introduced by Congressman Stupak to expand access of local channels by satellite in all U.S. DMAs.
In order for a consumer to receive local television stations though a satellite provider, the satellite company must offer local-into-local services in the customer’s media market. Without local-into-local service, satellite customers must rely on traditional over-the-air broadcasts to receive local broadcast signals, which is not always possible due to terrain or weak broadcast signals.
Last year, Stupak applauded DirecTV and DISH Network for launching local channels in the Marquette DMA, which includes 10 of the Upper Peninsula’s 15 counties, providing local television access via satellite for the first time to 90,000 northern Michigan residents.
Congressman Stupak has long advocated for expanding rural customers’ access to local programming through the satellite industry. Last year, Stupak introduced H.R. 927, the Satellite Consumers’ Right to Local Channels Act, which would establish a deadline of one year for satellite providers to provide local-into-local coverage in all the nation’s 210 DMAs. Parts of this legislation were incorporated into the local-into-local provision in the legislation signed into law.
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