DirecTV’s Hartenstein Outlines Satellite Industry Bill of Rights

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The direct broadcast satellite (DBS) business is in its earliest stage of evolution and must continue to work hard to make satellite TV the most popular multichannel video in the home, said DirecTV Chairman and CEO Eddy Hartenstein. “[Some] people say DBS is losing steam, I couldn’t disagree more,” Hartenstein said Tuesday at a Showtime-sponsored luncheon held during the Satellite Broadcasting & Communications Association‘s (SBCA) first-ever Retailer Rally in the nation’s capital.

Hartenstein, the SBCA’s outgoing chairman, said the industry faces a number of “very serious challenges” from “the cable guys” and broadcasters in the coming year, he added.

Those challenges include: reauthorization of the Satellite Home Viewer Improvement Act (SHVIA); opposing Northpoint Technology‘s DBS “spectrum grab” on Capitol Hill; and the need to extend the compulsory copyright license for distant network signals and superstations set to expire Dec. 31, 2004. Hartenstein said these fights are tantamount “to our industry’s Bill of Rights.” He urged satellite dish interests to spend time this week lobbying their local representatives and senators to support the industry.

For more coverage of SBCA’s Retailer Rally, see the Sept. 29 issue of Satellite News. For more info on subscribing to PBI Media’s satellite newsletters, check out our Web site at https://www.satellitetoday.com.