Monday, November 15, 1999
Online companies in TV program battle
Want to send out same shows, events as cable
The Washington Post
WASHINGTON — As it moves toward adjournment, Congress finds itself in the place it least likes to be: in the middle of a stormy, complex dispute between two financially well-heeled corporate interest groups.
On one side: Internet companies such as America Online (AOL), which are furious about a provision in a pending bill that specifically denies them the same blanket rights as cable TV operators to retransmit movies, sporting events and other entertainment over their medium.
On the other side: Hollywood studios, Major League Baseball, the National Football League, cable operators, broadcasters, music companies and others who want to restrain the Internet providers until rules for their use of copyrighted material can be worked out.
The disagreement also has split senior Republicans. House Commerce Committee Chairman Thomas J. Bliley Jr., R-Va., charged last week that he had been blindsided by the provision, which was attached to a bill on satellite TV operators.
Starting in 1976, Congress compelled owners of programming (such as sporting events, soap operas and movies) to let cable systems simulta neously retransmit broadcast signals containing copyrighted material to local subscribers — provided the cable companies paid a royalty and complied with certain blackout rules.
Some online companies already are using cable lines into homes and offices to provide high-speed Internet service. Cable and entertainment companies fear the online providers will claim the same rebroadcast rights as traditional cable companies.
But a senior House official who has dealt with the issue said a week ago that the Internet is a “different animal” from a local cable system. The senior official said he expects Internet companies eventually will win the same rebroadcast rights as cable sys tems — but only after rules have been worked out between government and the industry.
Whether Internet companies also will be allowed to demand licenses from television programmers will be crucial in determining whether true “convergence” of various technologies occurs.
Computer companies envision a world where people will be able to do all the things they now do via phone, television, the Net and even their stereo systems through one device. Cable companies and others fear they will become obsolete in that scenario.
The House has passed the final compromise version of the bill, and it is now in the Senate.
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