WASHINGTON—The final days of STELAR are upon us, as Congress has included provisions into its Fiscal Year 2020 appropriations legislation that will allow for the Satellite Television Extension and Localism Act Reauthorization to expire.

The House on approved the bill on Tuesday. The Senate passed the bill on Thursday night, which means that STELAR will sunset when the new year begins.

The appropriations bill, includes what is labeled as Title X (Television Viewer Protection) and Title XI (Eligibility to Receive Signals Under a Distant-Signal Satellite License). These detail a pair of bills approved by both the House of Representatives and the Senate that will allow for the sunsetting of STELAR at the end of December, while also creating permanent distant-signal satellite license provisions for specific markets. It also would make permanent “good faith” negotiations requirements during retransmission negotiations.

The part of the bill that would create permanent distant-signal licenses covers RVs, truckers, tailgaters and “short markets” that do not have a full complement of local ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox-affiliated TV stations. However, for satellite operators to qualify for the permanent license, the bill requires that they must deliver local TV signals when possible. Dish has already accomplished this, but DirecTV would have to meet the bill’s May 31, 2020 deadline for 12 “unserved” rural TV markets.

NAB President and CEO Gordon Smith commented on the inclusion of these provisions into the appropriations bill:

“NAB strongly supports key pro-consumer provisions in the appropriations bill released today that address the expiring STELAR bill. Under this legislation, AT&T-DirecTV will be encouraged to finally serve all satellite TV subscribers with their local TV stations. The bill also ends the five-year renewal cycle of satellite TV legislation that has incentivized pay-TV companies to deny carriage of broadcast TV stations during retransmission consent negotiations.”

AT&T is one of the opponents of letting STELAR sunset, and made its stance clear in a recent blog post.

It is expected that President Trump will approve the appropriations bill. 

Viewers who are fed up with ongoing TV blackouts caused by battles between broadcasters and pay-TV operators could confront a “permanent” blackout of their local TV channels if Congress doesn’t reauthorize the Satellite Television Extension and Localism Act (STELAR) before it expires at the end of 2019, according to advocates for the elderly.

Passed in 1992, STELA ensures that satellite TV subscribers in rural areas are able to receive their local TV channels. Without such legislation, they could instead end up receiving TV stations from locales outside their viewing area.

In an op-ed published in The Hill today, Debra Berlyn, president of Consumer Policy Solutions and the executive director of Project GOAL, a project to raise awareness of both the benefits and challenges of innovative new technologies for the aging community, called recent sporadic blackouts “unjust” and called on legislators to include provisions that would curtail rising retransmission costs that are the source of most local TV station blackouts.

“While these unjust and sporadic blackouts are a concern for all of us nationwide, 870,000 consumers [sic] will confront a permanent blackout of their TV service in just a few short months,” Berlyn wrote. “This can be avoided if members of Congress act quickly and reauthorize the Satellite Television Extension and Localism Act (STELAR) before it expires at the end of the year.

“The current situation has created space for retransmission fees to continue to skyrocket and, unfortunately, those growing fees are passed down to consumers,” Berlyn added. “A stronger good faith measure is needed as part of STELAR so that broadcasters cannot threaten station blackouts unless their request for increased fees is met. Consumers have a stake in this as they are the ones bearing the costs. This provision would limit this unfair negotiating tactic and prevent the TV blackouts that consumers do not deserve and don’t understand. They just want their TV service.”

Berlyn added that the elderly in particular are among the most vulnerable if STELAR isn’t reauthorized.

“While all consumers should be concerned, older adults have a special interest too because they watch a significant amount of TV and depend on access to local programming,” Berlyn wrote. “The TV is often their go-to source for important content including local news, weather, traffic and community information that is, at times, critically important.”