Wisconsin Station Loses Must-Carry Challenge

[Gregg Lengling]

The Federal Communications Commission ruled against a Wisconsin TV station in a case involving DirecTV and must-carry rules for local TV via satellite.

The State of Wisconsin and its Educational Communications Board, licensee of non-commercial television station WPNE in Green Bay, filed a must-carry complaint against DirecTV for its refusal to carry the station's signal. DirecTV later filed an opposition to the complaint.

At issue with the station is that DirecTV sent the notice of intent to launch local-into-local service for the station to the wrong address. The station licensee said the correct address is in Madison.

When studying the matter, the FCC said it found that a station employee was in possession of DirecTV's notice of intention to begin local-into-local service at least three weeks before the deadline for the station to respond. Phone calls also were made concerning the matter. The FCC said despite the circumstances, DirecTV did what it could to fulfill its obligations.

DirecTV launched service for Green Bay in May.