• B&C, Thursday, March 11, 2010 11:37 PM

The Senate Wednesday passed STELA, the five-year re-authorization of the satellite blanket distant signal license. It still has to be passed in the House, but the Senate action is a major step given the trouble the bill has had in gaining passage.

The license allows satellite operators to import distant affiliated network TV station signals to viewers who can't receive a comparable local signal, such as Vermont viewers getting Canadian hockey. The new bill allows DISH back into the distant-signal business in exchange for delivering local signals to the couple dozen or so that had lacked them because they were too small to make it economical to serve them. The bill also resolves the so-called phantom signal issue for cable operators, who will no longer have to pay a fee based on viewers who aren't getting their programming.

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