Vegas TV stations to be carried on satellite systems

Tuesday, Nov. 30, 1999 | 11:21 a.m.

President Clinton has signed a bill that will allow satellite broadcast systems to provide local television station signals to customers' homes.

Las Vegas satellite dish owners should begin to see the results late next year or in early 2001.

Local satellite dish retailers are enthused that one of the last -- and probably the greatest -- deterrents to buying a satellite TV system has been eliminated. But some say satellite dish systems have been such hot sellers that they don't expect to see much of an increase in sales.

Todd Trengrove, a video associate for the Good Guys at the Wow! store on West Sahara Avenue, said the last thing that has prevented people from investing in satellite dish systems has been a customer's inability to use them to pick up local television broadcasts. Now, with a stroke of Clinton's pen, that obstacle has been eliminated.

The Satellite Television Home Viewers Act was attached to appropriations legislation that was signed into law by the president Monday.

Until the legislation was signed, there was no mechanism in place for satellite providers to sign retransmission agreements with local TV stations.

Before the law was enacted, satellite users wanting local programming would have to receive it over the air, using a standard antenna to pick up the signal.

Not only was that an added expense, but it presented a major reduction in picture quality.

That hasn't stopped local consumers from buying satellite systems. Trengrove expects to continue to sell about four or five a day because he believes satellite systems provide better pictures than any other television system available, including cable.

Trengrove said most customers are drawn to the quality of the picture first and programming selection second. The fact that they could not pick up local stations for news, weather and sports was an irritation, but it usually wasn't a deal killer, Trengrove said.

Ben Pence of Ducat Enterprises, another local satellite television system seller, said the portability of the dish is another factor in sales in the Las Vegas area.

"A lot of people like to take these dishes with them on their (recreational vehicles)," Pence said.

Robert Moeller, a business consultant with Moeller Enterprises in Las Vegas, was one Wow! store customer looking over the satellite dishes Monday, hours after President Clinton signed the new legislation.

"I almost bought one when I lived in California," Moeller said. "I'm not really happy with cable, they keep raising their prices, which is not to say that satellite might not raise theirs. But I think the signal is much better and I just bought a new television that is prewired for all this stuff."

Moeller said local news is important to him, which is why he didn't buy a dish in the past.

"Without local news programs, you basically have to buy cable anyway, so I just didn't buy it as a result," Moeller said.

Meanwhile, the industry that stands to lose the most as a result of the new legislation -- cable television -- isn't phased by the action.

Steve Schorr, a vice president with Cox Communications of Las Vegas, the city's primary cable television franchise, said the competition will keep Cox sharp. He said cable TV will continue to have a number of marketing advantages that satellite TV won't be able to counter.

"We feel this is not necessarily going to hurt us," Schorr said. "We'll battle with them head to head. We've always said that as long as the playing field is level, we'll compete well against satellite TV."

Knowing satellite TV's ability to broadcast local stations was on the horizon, the cable industry geared up with the introduction of digital programming. Digital is allowing Cox to offer more programming, more options in pay-per-view broadcasts and high-definition TV.

As technology advances, Cox will be able to offer interactive television with which viewers can use their televisions to shop, bank or pay bills.

Schorr said the cable industry already has some distinct advantages over satellite TV. Schorr said having 700 employees demonstrates Cox's commitment to good service. Content providers with satellite companies, he said, are based out of state and aren't available to solve problems the way Cox can.

Another advantage is cost, Schorr said. When cable comes into a home, the signal can be split to several rooms and different programs can be viewed by different members of the household. The satellite signal requires a more expensive splitting device and an extra control panel to put different programming in different rooms of a house. Hardware alone can cost more than $500.

Trengrove said cost is not a big factor. He said satellite systems that cost $1,000 in 1994 are now under $100. He said DirecTV, one of the major satellite TV content providers, has had one of the most successful product rollouts in history with 1 million units sold last year and 8 million dishes serving customers nationwide. Another 3 million have rival Dish Network products.

The reason it will take so long for local broadcasts to come into Las Vegas homes is that other larger markets are the top priority for satellite content providers. Los Angeles and New York viewers will be considered first by DirecTV and Dish Network.

EchoStar Communications Corp., which operates the Dish Network, said it would work on providing local signals in seven cities by the end of the year and 13 more in early 2000.

The process of making the signals available is for the content providers to sign retransmission agreements with the local stations. The agreements are expected to be similar to those signed between the stations and Cox Communications.

Local television executives are enthused with the prospect of having their signals go out on satellite systems because of the prospect of additional viewership.

"It's another distribution source for our signal," said Gene Greenberg, vice president and general manager of KVBC Channel 3, the NBC affiliate in Las Vegas. "We now go over the air or by Cox cable. This will put us on satellites.

"I know they are working on the top markets first so I suspect this will occur in Las Vegas next year or in early 2001," Greenberg said.

"We're anxious to talk to the satellite companies," said Kris Foate, vice president and general manager of KTNV Channel 13, the local ABC affiliate. "We're analyzing all our options. Obviously, we'd like to provide programming for as many viewers as we can."

The Sinclair Broadcast Group, which operates KVWB Channel 21 (Cable Channel 12) and KFBT Channel 33 (Cable Channel 6), will benefit substantially as a result of a retransmission agreement with the satellite companies.

Sinclair has the contract for the Mountain West Conference sports broadcasts and Arizona Diamondbacks baseball. UNLV is a member of the Mountain West.

"People like their local sports and their local news and weather," said Robert Weisbord, who was named general manager of the two stations in August.

Weisbord, who replaced Mark Higgins at the stations after serving as an advertising account executive there, said in addition to providing sports broadcasts of interest to local residents, the stations may soon offer local news.

Weisbord said as soon as the company is able to consolidate its production facilities with its executive offices it would work toward developing a one-hour local newscast to be broadcast at 10 p.m., seven nights a week.

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