Satellite TV Gets Big Boost

Tue., Nov. 30, 1999

From Staff

The nation’s leading satellite TV companies are getting a running start on the holiday season, bolstered by new legislation that lets them beam local channels into subscribers’ homes in some major markets.

The satellite provision, included in the massive budget package that President Clinton signed into law Monday, will enable satellite customers to watch local TV news, weather and sports broadcasts, just as cable owners do.

Once they start offering local channels, satellite TV providers will have six months to hammer out required retransmission agreements with the networks. By 2002, companies that carry any local broadcast stations in a market would have to carry all of them.

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Satellite TV Gets Big Boost

Jesse Tinsley

Jim Meehan

Molly Quinn

Rob Curley

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