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As a current subscriber to satellite television, you know all the benefits this great technology has to offer - superior picture quality, stereo sound, hundreds of channels. Since its launch in the early 1990's, satellite television has grown to 18 million subscribers and counting.
We are a long way from the early days of satellite pioneers like Arthur C. Clarke and Taylor Howard when satellite systems cost as much as $10,000 and programming was beamed in the clear. Since 1988 and the passage of the Satellite Home Viewer Act, satellite companies and satellite subscribers' access to network programming has been restricted. For example, only those households that live outside of a local tv station's predicted signal are eligible to get distant network signals. If you live in a market where the satellite provider offers local signals via satellite, you are unable to subscribe to distant network signals. Subscribers whose local television market is close to a state line are sometimes forced to take an out of state tv station as their "local" station. In all of these instances, satellite subscribers are being denied to the network or local tv programming.
All of these legal restrictions are intended to protect local broadcasters. All of them have created unfair burdens for satellite subscribers that deny thousands of consumers access to network programming. These restrictions remain even though technological advancements allow many households to access network stations from distant markets through other means. With an internet connection and a computer it is now possible to stream the broadcasts of tv stations around the globe right into your home. With a device like the Slingbox a consumer can stream live local tv from another market into their home. Cable providers are able to carry the tv signals of network stations from nearby markets - something satellite providers are largely prohibited from doing.
Very simply, the restrictions on who can get out of market tv stations have long outlived their usefulness. That is why we are launching a campaign to change the law so that any satellite subscriber can get access to tv stations outside their local market. If you can buy a newspaper in your hometown from any market in the country, why can't you get access to any local tv station?
Congress must act to extend the Satellite Home Viewer Act by December 31, 2009 to preserve the rights of those satellite consumers who don't have access to local tv stations to get the signals of distant tv stations. Now is the time to get Congress to change the law so that all satellite subscribers can have access to tv stations from outside their home market.
Join the "My TV. My Way. " campaign TODAY. Sign our petition. Tell your member of Congress that consumers deserve access to MORE information, not LESS. |
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