Testimony of Gerry Waldron at Hearing on Satellite Television Law WASHINGTON, DC -- Covington & Burling Partner Gerry Waldron testified today before the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Courts, Intellectual Property, and the Internet at a hearing on Satellite Television Laws in Title 17.
Below is a transcript of his testimony as prepared for delivery.
* * *
Good morning, Chairman Coble, Ranking Member Watt, and members of the Subcommittee. My name is Gerry Waldron. I am a partner with the law firm of Covington & Burling, and I am testifying here today on behalf of the more than one thousand free, local, over-the-air television members of the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB).
As the Committee begins its review of STELA, your broadcast constituents urge you to keep in mind two principles. First, free, locally-focused broadcast television should remain available to American households. Second, this examination should not be used to create new exceptions to copyright law that undermine those contractual relationships between broadcasters and satellite or cable companies that enable broadcastings local focus.
Why is localism so important? For broadcasters, localism is coverage of local news, severe weather and emergency alerts, school closings, high school sports, local elections and public affairs. Localism is support for charities, civic organizations and events that help create a sense of community. Our broadcast stations are also the way that local businesses educate and inform the public about their goods and services and, in turn, create jobs and support your economies. There is no doubt that viewers - your constituents - continue to rely on our service. Broadcast television remains unique because it is free, it is local, and it is always on - even when other forms of communication may fail.
As a threshold matter, the Subcommittee should ask whether the expiring Section 119 distant signal license continues to promote localism, and whether it is in the public interest. It could be argued that the distant signal license served its purpose in 1988, when the back-yard satellite industry was just getting started; and served its purpose again when DISH and DirecTV first launched their small-receiver services in the mid-1990s. But in 2013, when DISH and DirecTV are two of the three largest pay-tv providers in the country, the distant signal license is a vestige of a bygone era.
Today, over 98 percent of all U.S. television households can view their local network affiliates by satellite-and that number is growing all the time. No public policy justifies treating satellite subscribers in local-into-local markets as unserved, which would deprive viewers of the benefits of locally-focused service. As DISH has demonstrated, there are no technical reasons for failing to serve all markets. Accordingly, the Subcommittee should continue to encourage localism, and consider whether the Section 119 license should expire.
In reexamining STELA, you are likely to hear from those seeking enactment of new exceptions to the copyright laws that would undermine broadcasters retransmission consent rights. Let me be clear, arguments that broadcasters have too much leverage in retransmission consent negotiations, or that retransmission fees are directly responsible for rising cable bills, are wrong.
Local broadcasters and pay-tv providers both have an incentive to complete retransmission consent negotiations and for that simple reason they almost always do - before any disruption to viewers occurs. As a result, carriage disruptions from retransmission consent impasses represent only one-hundredth of one percent of annual U.S. television viewing hours. That means consumers are 20 times more likely to lose television programming because of a power outage than a retransmission consent dispute. Furthermore, in the small number of instances where these negotiations have resulted in disruptions to consumers, there is one distinct pattern: the involvement of Time Warner Cable, DirecTV and DISH. Since 2012, these three companies have been party to 89 percent of broadcast television carriage disruptions nationwide.
In contrary to what some suggest, NAB has demonstrated across numerous economic studies that retransmission consent payments are not responsible for high and rising pay-tv prices. Just two cents of every cable bill dollar goes to broadcast retransmission consent fees. Thats true in spite of the fact that during the 2011-2012 television season, 96 of the top 100 most watched prime time programs were aired by broadcast TV stations.
Lastly, the committee should understand that retransmission consent negotiations are about more than just fees. Increasingly, these negotiations include hard discussions about how we can distribute our content across a variety of competitive platforms - such as Hulu.
In conclusion, your local broadcast constituents urge you to rebuff calls from the pay-TV industry to expand the narrow examination of STELA solely to give them unfair leverage in market-based negotiations. .
* * *
About NAB
The National Association of Broadcasters is the premier advocacy association for Americas broadcasters. NAB advances radio and television interests in legislative, regulatory and public affairs. Through advocacy, education and innovation, NAB enables broadcasters to best serve their communities, strengthen their businesses and seize new opportunities in the digital age. Learn more at www.nab.org.
Most recent headlines
06/10/2025
France T l visions, France's leading broadcaster, has received the 2025 EBU ...
04/09/2025
Monumental Sports & Entertainment (MSE), in collaboration with Dalet, has been a...
30/08/2025
WASHINGTON The Federal Communications Commission has adopted its FY 2025 Regulatory Fees Order that establishes the regulatory fee rates for the broadcast stati...
29/08/2025
Australian Red Cross and SBS launch training to help workplaces in the fight aga...
29/08/2025
The National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF), an agency of the Department of Sp...
29/08/2025
L3Harris Technologies has concentrated decades of expertise across the entire enterprise to develop affordable and reliable best-of-breed solutions to rapidly c...
29/08/2025
BURBANK, Calif. The CW Network and the Pac-12 Conference have announced a new media rights deal that will extend their broadcast partnership beginning with the ...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK Gracenote has released a new analysis of its global video dataset showing that the number of FAST channels grew nearly 14% from Q1 2025 and 76% since 2...
29/08/2025
SAN JOSE, Calif. Harmonic has announced a series of improvements to its live sports streaming solution that the company said will improve fan engagement, protec...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK and LOS ANGELES Fox Corp. and YouTube TV last night announced a renewal of the full portfolio of Fox networks, including Fox News Channel, Fox Business...
29/08/2025
Budapest, Hungary, August 2025 - The integration of Microsoft Teams Rooms (MTR) with Lightware's Taurus universal matrix switchers delivers a new level of f...
29/08/2025
Frequency, the engine behind many of the world's best-known streaming television channels, today announced it will launch Studio Live, a next-generation uni...
29/08/2025
In an era when AI and cyber resilience are essential, Scality will mark the 10th anniversary of Scality Day on October 16, 2025 in Paris. This flagship global e...
29/08/2025
Disguise's In-House Creative and Technical Teams Pre-Visualised, Programmed and Delivered Content for the Experience, All Powered by EX 3+
Technology solu...
29/08/2025
Disguise will be demonstrating the latest workflows for TV, film and live events on a number of partner booths at the show
Disguise, the industry-leading tech...
29/08/2025
STOCKHOLM, Sweden Accedo will showcase Accedo Compose, its AI agent-powered modular orchestration layer that assists streaming providers in transitioning client...
29/08/2025
LOS ANGELES Cineverse has announced that it is working with Xperi to bring four of its streaming channels to automobiles for the first time as part of the DTS A...
29/08/2025
DALLAS & ATLANTA Gray Media has announced an agreement with the sports streaming service Victory+ to simulcast 17 Dallas Stars NHL games in 15 television market...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK AND CULVER CITY Comcast NBCUniversal and Amazon have announced new and extended distribution agreements that will expand the content available on their...
29/08/2025
FOOTHILL RANCH, Calif. RED Digital Cinema will feature its Cine-Broadcast Module supporting live broadcast workflows during IBC2025, Sept. 12-15, at the RAI Ams...
29/08/2025
29 Aug 2025
Kyivstar Rings Opening Bell at Nasdaq Marking Landmark Listing and ...
29/08/2025
More than half of all NFL games live on Sky for the first timeFriday 29 August 2025
Sky Sports has announced a new three-year deal with the NFL, extending its ...
29/08/2025
Back to All News
RIV4LRIES: The Trailer of the New Series With Samuele Carrino ...
29/08/2025
Get ready for an inspiring and emotional insight into the world of competitive Irish dancing with My Story: Tomi Champion of the World airing on RT 2 this monda...
29/08/2025
RT has today announced that David McCullagh is to be the new presenter of RT Radio 1's flagship Today programme, which airs every weekday at 10am, replaci...
28/08/2025
By Kristin Feeley, Director, Documentary Film & Artist Programs
If you want to tell untold stories, if you want to give voice to the voiceless, you've got ...
28/08/2025
Directed by Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert, Sundance Institute-supported Amer...
28/08/2025
Corridos have been a cornerstone of M sica Mexicana for generations, telling stories rooted in everyday life. Now, a new chapter is taking shape: motivational c...
28/08/2025
Los corridos han sido un pilar de la M sica Mexicana durante generaciones, contando historias enraizadas en la vida cotidiana. Ahora, un nuevo cap tulo est tom...
28/08/2025
Earlier this month, we promised our Verano Forever party would bring the heat, a...
28/08/2025
L3Harris will provide the Polish F-16V fleet with the Viper Shield electronic warfare system as part of an upgrade program....
28/08/2025
Bilbao, August 26, 2025 - AgileTV, an international television and video technol...
28/08/2025
Ken Wilkinson is an Emmy Awards nominated New York audio engineer who specialises in production sound mixing for film, commercial, episodic and documentary work...
28/08/2025
NEW YORK FuboTV today announced that it will launch Fubo Sports, a skinny bundle that focuses on sports with a subscription price of $56 monthly....
28/08/2025
NEVADA City, Calif. At IBC2025, Sept. 12-15 at the RAI Amsterdam, Telestream will debut its new Global Ingest strategy, introducing a next-generation ingest arc...
28/08/2025
Dr. Rhoda Bernard Releases Groundbreaking Debut Book on Accessible Arts Educatio...
28/08/2025
TAG Video Systems, the leader in software-based IP end-to-end workflow monitoring, deep probing, and real-time visualization, has named Oliver Gappa as Sales Di...
28/08/2025
AI-based voice enhancement will be among a series of innovations making their IBC 2025 debut on the DHD stand B46 in Hall 8 at the RAI Amsterdam Convention Cent...
28/08/2025
Telef nica Servicios Audiovisuales (TSA), the leading system integrator and service provider in the media sector in Spain, with the support of Appear, the globa...
28/08/2025
To fully immerse sailing fans in the world's biggest offshore yacht race, production company, Optical Media turned to LiveU's On-site Production solutio...
28/08/2025
Working with Calrec on its most recent overhaul, radio and television broadcaster, WNED has migrated to a fully IP infrastructure with multiple Type R consoles,...
28/08/2025
Cleeng, the Subscriber Retention Management (SRM ) inventor, has unveiled Cleeng Pro, the first-ever direct-to-consumer (D2C) subscription management platform t...
28/08/2025
Zixi, the industry leader in live broadcast-quality video over IP, today announced that French media distribution platform OKAST has selected Zixi to enable rel...
28/08/2025
Solution offers a streamlined, speaker-free architecture to optimize integration with premium external loudspeakers and advanced loudness metering
Nixer Pro Au...
28/08/2025
Cinegy, the premier provider of software-defined television technology, has announced a strategic partnership with Vision One Touch Film Production Services L.L...
28/08/2025
Telestream, a global leader in media workflow technologies, will debut its new Global Ingest strategy at IBC2025, introducing a next-generation ingest architect...
28/08/2025
Tier 1 operator selects Broadpeak to power high-performance, unified CDN solution across Norway, Sweden and Finland
Broadpeak, a leader in streaming and moneti...
28/08/2025
Leading video software provider, Synamedia, today announced that 24 Frames Digital, one of India's leading live event streaming service providers, has chose...
28/08/2025
Meet VisualOn at IBC2025: See What's Next in AI-Powered Video Streaming Join VisualOn at IBC2025 and discover how our AI-driven Optimizer and advanced media...
Testimony of Gerry Waldron at Hearing on Satellite Television Law WASHINGTON, DC -- Covington & Burling Partner Gerry Waldron testified today before the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Courts, Intellectual Property, and the Internet at a hearing on Satellite Television Laws in Title 17. 
