The Senate Judiciary Committee has tapped its witnesses for the March 26 hearing on the reauthorization of the Satellite Television Extension and Localism Act (STELA).
They include some familiar faces, and voices, when it comes to Hill hearings on satellite issues, including an encore performance by one witness from the House hearing on STELA earlier this month, although there is no pure play cable witness.
The witnesses are R. Stanton Dodge, executive VP and general counsel and secretary, DISH; Marci Burdick, senior VP of broadcasting, Schurz Communications (who was a witness at the House Communications Subcommittee hearing); Ellen Stutzman, director of research and public policy from the Writers Guild of America West; and John Bergmayer, senior staff attorney, Public Knowledge.
STELA is the law that grants satellite operators a blanket license to deliver distant network-affiliated TV station signals to their subs, but also could be a vehicle for some video reforms, including retrans, since it is must-pass legislation. It must be renewed or it sunsets at the end of this year.
