WASHINGTON – September 16, 2009- The Association of Public Television Stations (APTS) commends Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy, Ranking Member Jeff Sessions and Senators Herb Kohl, Orrin Hatch and Jon Kyl for introducing the Satellite Television Modernization Act of 2009. Similarly, APTS commends House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers Jr. and Representatives Rick Boucher, Hank Johnson Jr. and Debbie Wasserman Schultz for their introduction of the Satellite Home Viewer Update and Reauthorization Act of 2009.

“We applaud Chairman Leahy, Ranking Member Sessions, Chairman Conyers, Representative Boucher and the bills’ co-sponsors for their leadership on this critical issue and for recognizing the important role that public television stations play in informing Americans of the issues in their communities, especially in this era of declining local news,” said APTS President and CEO Larry Sidman. “APTS looks forward to working with Congress as these bills advance.”

Among other things, both bills will allow state public television networks to reach all their state residents with important news and public affairs programming. State or regional public television networks are charged by their state legislatures to provide statewide services, which may include news, public affairs, K-12 services to schools, coverage of statewide elections, higher education, workforce services, live coverage of the state legislature, and emergency response information.

However, under current law, many of these networks cannot be carried by Direct Broadcast Satellite providers in certain portions of their states because they do not have a full-power transmitter in each Designated Market Area reaching into the state. This new bill will rectify this anomaly on a permissive basis.

Sidman continued: “For example, Wyoming Public Television, which is licensed to a state university, has the potential to reach only 25 percent of its state population through satellite under current law. The rest of the state receives either out-of-state public television stations or no local public television signals at all. Similar problems plague at least 15 states.”