Audio Video News

Television viewers in the Tampa-St. Petersburg area of Florida now have a real choice between their local cable system and direct broadcast satellite services. On February 21, EchoStar Communications Corporation announced that its DISH Network had begun offering local WFTS-ABC (Channel 28), WTSP-CBS (Ch. 10), WFLA-NBC (Ch. 8), and WTVT-Fox (Ch. 13) by satellite television to 10 counties in the region.

With this addition, DISH Network is now supplying local TV channels via satellite to dozens of cities and their environs nationwide: New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Philadelphia, San Francisco-Oakland-San Jose, Boston, Dallas-Ft. Worth, Washington, DC, Detroit, Atlanta, Seattle-Tacoma, Minneapolis-St. Paul, Miami-Ft. Lauderdale, Phoenix, Denver, Pittsburgh, Nashville, Salt Lake City, Kansas City, Houston, Cleveland, and Orlando-Melbourne-Daytona Beach.

DISH Network has moved quickly to take advantage of legislation by Congress last December that eliminated a longstanding prohibition of the practice of retransmitting local TV signals, otherwise known as "local into local." Supporters of the legislation pointed out the inherent unfairness in FCC regulations that allowed cable systems to offer local channels while prohibiting DBSers from doing so.

DISH Network is offering what it calls a "complete alternative" to cable that includes local ABC, CBS, NBC, and Fox network channels for a package price of $4.99/month. A national PBS channel is an additional $1/month, according to an EchoStar company press release. To promote the new features, DISH Network will give every new convert from cable who commits to $39.95 in monthly programming a free DISH 500 satellite system and a free installation. The promotional special is good through April 30.