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Senator McCaskill asks satellite providers to improve Rural Access to local TV Stations

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Claire McCaskill has defended customers in rural Missouri who currently do not have access to local television stations and news broadcasts. 

In a Senate subcommittee hearing, McCaskill specifically asked satellite providers why they have failed to provide this service and requested that they work with her on efforts to improve customers’ access to local channels.

McCaskill got right to the point asking witnesses: “Why can’t you offer the Kirksville news to the folks in Kirksville and why can’t you offer St. Joe news to the folks in St. Joe? . . . Why can’t you do that right now?” 

McCaskill’s comments were part of a Communications, Technology, and the Internet Subcommittee hearing Wednesday examining the renewal of a 2004 law dealing with the satellite and cable industry. 

Witnesses responded that the issue remains complex and requires cooperation from local broadcasters.

They also explained that in order to provide local news broadcasts while also excluding the rest of the stations’ programming would mean that customers would have channels that are blank 90 percent of the time. 

McCaskill argued that access to local news as an option in their channel selections would be worth overcoming such obstacles, and encouraged the industry leaders to communicate with their rural customers.

Witnesses argued that their research shows that customers would forgo access to local television news rather than have a channel at times with no programming, but McCaskill disagreed.

“How did you reach out to your customers?  I’m curious about that.  I would have to believe that the folks in Hannibal and Kirksville, if you called them and said ‘Hey, we’re going to include in your line-up local news’, I guarantee that people in Missouri are smart enough to change the channel when it goes blank,” McCaskill said.

McCaskill also urged the industry to do a better job communicating with their customers in rural areas about their services.

“Couldn’t you just send them a note in their bill? Couldn’t you just give them notification? I would think that if the people were told, ‘you can get local news but you won’t get anything else on that channel but local news’ I think people would pay attention to that and appreciate it,” McCaskill said. 

McCaskill finished by committing to work with the industry to find a solution that could improve rural access to local news.

“I realize there are problem and that it’s complex, but I think the quicker we all get together to figure out how to fix it, the better it’s going to be in terms of your competition and the happiness customers.”