Re: [Swprograms] OT: Regional sports networks

[Joseph Buch <joseph.buch@xxxxxxx>]

At 06:11 PM 06/14/2005, Rob de Santos AFANA wrote:

>I'm no lawyer but as I understand it the rules allow cable
>(or satellite) companies to have exclusive content and not share it in
>certain circumstances. 


The rules for cable TV say if you never send your "local content" channel anywhere via satellite, then you are not obligated to make it available to Direct TV or DISH.  Comcast uses terrestrial microwave (or maybe fiber these days) to get its programming to its various service areas.

I believe the FCC acted in response to an intense lobbying effort by Comcast to protect its "local content" from use by competitors.  In addition to exclusive sports coverage of the Phillies, Comcast has their own news channels with regional news, advertising, and features of potential interest to its customers.  Specifying that the programming could not have been sent via satellite was the FCC's way of defining what was "local content".  They did not anticipate the wide availability of fiber paths which we have today.  Today cable TV is making a bit of a comeback against the DBS competition by offering bundled phone and internet service and digital, on-demand programming.

As far as I know, there are no exclusive channels on the DBS services outside of the barker channels and the "How to install your new access card" type channels.  Charlie Ergen does a monthly program on DISH for customer relations purposes but no cable company would want to air that because he is always telling folks about the great new services and products DISH is planning.  DISH also has a lot of international content that is not available elsewhere.  These programs are produced by others like Italy's RAI, Polands Radio Maria, and China's CCTV English, French, and Spanish services so they are not in the same category as content produced by DISH.

Joe Buch


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