EchoStar gets help with signals a bit late

Joyzelle Davis, Rocky Mountain News

Published November 18, 2006 at midnight

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A bipartisan group of senators on Thursday introduced a bill that would block a court-mandated shutdown of EchoStar's distant network TV signals to about 800,000 subscribers by Dec. 1, but the move likely came too late to provide relief.

The U.S. Senate adjourned late Thursday for a Thanksgiving break and won't resume the lame-duck session until Dec. 5.

A federal court this year ordered EchoStar's Dish Network to stop delivering distant feeds of NBC, ABC, CBS and Fox programming after determining that the Douglas County-based company had sold the signals to customers who could receive an acceptable signal from their local affiliate, in violation of the law. Only rural customers who can't receive signals from over-the-air antennas are supposed to receive the signals from outside of their markets.

The court ordered EchoStar to stop providing all distant network feeds, saying the satellite-TV provider flouted the law and couldn't be trusted to determine whether subscribers are eligible.

Colorado Republican Sen. Wayne Allard and Vermont Democrat Patrick Leahy introduced the bill, which would allow Dish subscribers who are legally entitled to the signals to continue to receive them. It also requires EchoStar to deposit $20 million to cover any future violations.

"We are trying to be responsive to the many constituents who have called and written expressing their concern," said Steve Wymer, a spokesman for Allard, whose office estimates that as many as 14,000 Colorado subscribers might be affected. "You know how it is if you mess with someone's TV."

EchoStar praised the legislation but noted in a statement that because the ruling requires EchoStar to stop transmitting the signals by Dec. 1 "it appears that innocent consumers will lose their network signals before Congress can act on this important legislation."

Jimmy Schaeffler, chairman of research firm the Carmel Group, estimates that about 600,000 of EchoStar's 12.8 million subscribers might be affected by the distant network shutdown. How many of them will switch to larger rival DirecTV isn't known, but those who do leave will be difficult for EchoStar to win back.

"There are going to be an awful lot of people who want to see their CSI and Desperate Housewives and Law & Order," Schaeffler said. "And when they can't get it on Dec. 1, they'll go for the quickest solution, and that's calling up DirecTV."

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