Summary
Recent advancements in technology have made it possible for American consumers to enjoy more television viewing choices than ever dreamed possible only a few years ago. This Comment argues that Congress should amend the Satellite Home Viewer Act of 1988 (SHVA) to allow American satellite television consumers to legally subscribe to distant network programming. A recent case, CBS Broadcasting Inc v Echo Star Communications Corp, illustrates how consumers lose under the current regulatory scheme. In light of the Eleventh Circuit's decision in CBS Broadcasting Inc and its aftermath, this Comment argues that the time is ripe for Congress to reconsider the current federal regulatory scheme that prohibits consumers from subscribing to distant networks. With recent advancements in technology and in how consumers interact with media and advertisements, allowing consumers to have the choice to subscribe to distant networks could actually be beneficial to all parties involved, including broadcasters and advertisers who stand to make lucrative gains.
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Extract
I Want My Mtv . . . And My Abc, Cbs, Nbc, and Fox: Cbs Broadcasting, Inc. V. Echostar Communications Corp., the Satellite Home Viewer Act of 1988, and an Argument for Consumer Choice in Distant Network Broadcasting
I. Introduction
Recent advancements in technology have made it possible for American consumers to enjoy more television viewing choices1 than ever dreamed possible only a few years ago.2 With a few clicks of a remote control, a satellite television subscriber has instant access to hundreds of channels3 from around the world, pay-per-view programming, on-demand movies, music channels, and even interactive games and karaoke.4 However, one choice is conspicuously absent: federal law prevents consumers from subscribing to network television stations outside the particular geographic market in which they reside.5 A complex federal statutory scheme-known as the Satellite Home Viewer Act of 1988 ("SHVA")6-prohibits satellite companies from offering their customers "distant networks," or network stations outside a subscriber's market area,7 with the exception of customers who fall within limited circumstances as determined by highly technical criteria.8 This Comment argues that Congress should amend the SHVA to allow American satellite television consumers to legally subscribe to distant network programming.A recent case, CBS Broadcasting, Inc. v. EchoStar Communications Corp., illustrates how consumers lose under the current regulatory scheme. EchoStar Communications Corporation, dba DISH Network, one of the two major direct broadcast satellite providers in the U.S. market,9 recently lost a protracted court battle with network stations CBS, FOX, NBC, and ABC for copyright violations that arose from EchoStar's widespread transmission of distant networks to ineligible subscribers.10 The network stations claimed that EchoStar systematically allowed ineligible customers to subscribe to distant networks, thereby violating the networks' exclusive rights to control the retransmission of their programs under the Copyright Act.11 In a stinging rebuke, the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals held that EchoStar had "engage[d] in a 'pattern or practice'" of providing distant networks to ineligible subscribers in violation of federal law.12 As a result, the court remanded and instructed the district court to issue a nationwide permanent injunction preventing EchoStar from offering distant networks to any of its subscribers, even though around seventy-five percent13 of the approximately 900,00014 affected subscribers were undisputedly eligible to receive distant networks under that same federal law.15EchoStar's subsequent settlement negotiations failed to save its consumers from the impending injunction. Indeed, after the Eleventh Circuit's ruling, EchoStar continued settlement negotiations with the plaintiffs, and on August 28, 2006, announced that it had reached a $100 million settlement with all of the plaintiffs except the Fox Network...See the full content of this document
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