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DISH Network and DirecTv on Tuesday issued a joint statement in support of the Satellite Home Viewer Extension and Reauthorization Act, a bill the two companies called “must-pass legislation” that would force local broadcasters to allow their signals to be carried in-state by satellite providers.

The move would help ensure that viewers are able to receive local broadcast stations no matter what delivery medium they choose or where they live. Currently, viewers in some areas have to watch “local” programming from outside their home areas because their DMAs cross state lines.

“The broadcasters who benefit from this outdated model are resisting change, arguing that it will hurt their bottom lines,” DISH and DirecTV said in the statement.

According to the satellite providers, parts of 45 states currently have areas where consumers are required to get out-of-state TV signals based on their DMAs. The Satellite Home Viewer Extension and Reauthorization Act is currently pending in Washington.

By David Lieberman, USA TODAY
NEW YORK — The company that’s made it so easy for television viewers to avoid watching ads will unveil Monday a plan to help stations sell them.

TiVo (TIVO) will challenge Nielsen, whose audience ratings provide the basis for most ad sales, with Stop/Watch Local Markets. It will supplement TiVo’s measurements of national TV audiences with data from all but the smallest of the nation’s 210 markets.

TiVo will offer stations, advertisers and program producers year-round, second-by-second information about the shows and commercials watched by people who have one of the company’s DVRs. The anonymous data will come directly from the boxes.

“Imagine a local news department that has to decide where to put the sports and weather and how much time to devote,” says Todd Juenger, TiVo’s audience research and measurement general manager. “Having second-by-second graphs that show when the audience goes up, goes away or fast-forwards is a tremendous new piece of insight.”

Advertisers likely will be the most interested in the data. Nielsen just measures local program viewing four months a year in all but the 21 largest communities.

Information about “who’s viewing the commercial is a big plus for us,” says Kevin Gallagher, executive vice president at ad buyer Starcom USA. “Is it a be-all and end-all? We’ll have to look at it and see.”

TiVo’s sales of audience data supplement revenue from its struggling DVR business. The company has 3.3 million subscriptions, down 25% from its peak in early 2007. It would not discuss pricing for the data service.

TiVo’s privacy-protection policies prevent it from collecting important information that Nielsen can provide, including the number of people watching a TV set and demographic breakdowns.

“Our ratings are based on samples that reflect the viewing behavior of all households, not just those who have DVRs,” says Nielsen spokesman Gary Holmes.

Juenger says TiVo owners tend to be richer, better educated “and, unfortunately, a little more white” than the overall population, but “it isn’t a gigantic difference.”

He adds that DVRs will be “the way that most people will watch television in the near future.”

TiVo says its data will come from most of the DVRs that use its service, including ones that get it from DirecTV. It wouldn’t say whether Comcast will participate. Samples will range from 25,000 in the largest markets to 5,000 in small ones. Customers can opt out at TiVo’s website. Nielsen’s local samples range from 400 to 900.

DirecTV has agreed to pay $2.31 million and Comcast $900,000 to settle a suit filed by the Justice Department and alleging they had violated the do not call provisions of the Telemarketing Sales Rule. A DirecTV telemarketer will pay an additional $115,000.

DirecTV was settling charges that by violating the TSR, it was also violating a 2005 court order barring it from such conduct. DirecTV had paid $5.3 million to settle the previous alleged do not call violation.

Both Comcast and DirecTV are prohibited from future violations by the agreeement. Both companies had been accused of calling people who had specifically asked the companies not to call them again, said FTC chairman Jon Leibowitz.

“What makes DirecTV’s actions especially troubling is that it is a two-time offender: DiRECTV violated not only the FTC’s Do Not Call Rules, but also a previous federal court order barring it from exactly this type of conduct,” he said. “Simply put, we won’t tolerate firms that disregard consumers’ specific requests not to be called, and we will be especially tough on companies that ignore their obligations under prior court orders.”

The FTC said Comcast had the distinction of being the first company to have a complaint against it solely for violating the so-called entity-specific do not call provision, which means a company calling again after it had been specifically asked not to.

The FTC still has a complaint outstanding against Dish Network and two of its telemarketers for do not call violations.