Colorado Senators calling for Probe in DirecTV feud.A long-running feud between the nation's two largest satellite television companies has spilled onto the national stage. Colorado Senators Wayne Allard Alan Wayne Allard (born December 2, 1943) is the senior United States Senator from Colorado and a member of the Republican Party. Background Allard was born in Fort Collins, Colorado to Sibyl Jean Stewart and Amos Wilson Allard. , a Republican, and Ken Salazar Kenneth Lee Salazar (born March 2, 1955) is an American politician, rancher, and environmentalist from the U.S. state of Colorado. Salazar, a Democrat, served as state Attorney General before winning a U.S. Senate seat in the 2004 Senate elections. He has been the junior U.S. , a Democrat, sent a letter to the Senate Judiciary Committee The U.S. Senate established the Committee on the Judiciary on December 10, 1816, as one of the original 11 standing committees. It is also one of the most powerful committees in Congress; among its wide range of jurisdictions is investigation of federal judicial nominees and oversight of last week asking it to examine whether El Segundo-based DirecTV Group Inc., which is controlled by News Corp., "has engaged in behavior that would threaten the viability of the satellite TV market." Colorado is home to EchoStar Communications Corp., provider of DISH Network See DBS. , DirecTV's main competitor. The dispute involves a legal battle over the re-transmission of "distant network" channels. Satellite TV customers in small markets that are not home to local network affiliates receive their network programming from network stations in distant markets. The networks filed a lawsuit in 1998 accusing satellite companies of offering distant network signals to customers in areas that weren't supposed to get them. Earlier this spring, a federal appeals court in Atlanta ruled on the side of the networks. Last week, EchoStar and the affiliates of ABC ABC in full American Broadcasting Co. Major U.S. television network. It began when the expanding national radio network NBC split into the separate Red and Blue networks in 1928. , NBC NBC in full National Broadcasting Co. Major U.S. commercial broadcasting company. It was formed in 1926 by RCA Corp., General Electric Co. (GE), and Westinghouse and was the first U.S. company to operate a broadcast network. and CBS (Cell Broadcast Service) See cell broadcast. , as well as affiliates of the Fox Network, agreed to a $100 million settlement that would allow the company to continue transmitting their signals. Stations that air Fox content but are not owned by Fox agreed to the settlement but the 25 stations that are owned by Fox--which is also a subsidiary of News Corp.--did not join the settlement. Instead, Fox filed a request for an injunction that would prevent EchoStar from transmitting the signals from any of the networks. At the same time, DirecTV began running ads in some of the affected markets in what EchoStar says is an attempt to pick up its customers. Critics of Fox say the broadcaster and its parent company are using the court case to take away customers from EchoStar. Fox maintains they have done nothing wrong. The two senators from Colorado also added in their letter that they wanted to "ensure that Fox's decision to pull out of negotiations was not motivated by a desire to ensure that DirecTV wins the market share that will be abandoned should EchoStar be forced to turn off its distant signals." |
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