AGREEMENT REACHED IN SATELLITE TV SQUABBLE

One of the nation's largest satellite TV companies -- DirecTV -- and the National Association of Broadcasters, has announced an agreement to settle a lawsuit concerning what viewers can watch network programs via satellite.

Under the deal, many viewers who get their network shows from satellite TV will still have to make the switch and obtain local affiliates' network programs by antennas or cable TV. But the timetables for those transitions have been pushed back, says John Earnhardt, a spokesman for he National Association of Broadcasters.

During the interim, DirecTV and the networks -- Fox, CBS, ABC and NBC -- will determine who can get the network programs via satellite.

DirectTV has agreed to give a discount on antennas to consumers who must switch as determined by a technical test involving the stations' coverage areas.

In the Cape Girardeau area, most families will be able to pick up CBS (KFVS-12) and Fox via antennas. But ABC (Marion, Ill.) and NBC (Paducah, Ky.) may, or may not, present clear reception on an antenna.

This indicates, said Earnhardt, that viewers in the Cape Girardeau would have to give up CBS and Fox on satellite, but possibly could still keep the network programming for ABC and NBC via satellite.

The DirecTV settlement doesn't involve two other big satellite TV companies. EchoStar and PrimeTime 24 suits are under separate court orders, and are required to cut off customers from CBS and Fox programs by April 30. The networks have sued EchoStar to try to force it to cut off illegal customers.

A DirecTV spokesman didn't specify how many people the settlement would affect, but others close to the situation estimated it would be hundreds of thousands.

Congress has become involved in the argument. The recent DirecTV settlement was hailed by House Commerce Committee Chairman Thomas Bliley, R-Va., who had urged the parties to work out a deal.

He said it clears the way for the House to advance a broader bill that would, among other things, let satellite customers, for the first time, receive their local TV signals via satellite.

The broadcasters are working on some legislation that would allow satellite re-transmission.

"We dropped the suit against DirecTV last week," said Earnhart. "Our suits against EchoStar and PrimeTime 24 are under separate court orders."

Federal law lets DirecTV and other satellite companies provide customers with "distant" network signals -- which come from other broadcast areas -- only if those customers cannot receive their local stations using rooftop antennas.

The satellite and broadcasting industries have been at odds for years over how to interpret the legalities that determines when a satellite customer can't get a local signal and thus is eligible to receive network programming by satellite.

The new deal calls for some viewers -- those living closest to their local TV stations as determined by a technical test involving the stations' coverage areas -- to lose their current satellite signals for CBS, Fox, ABC and NBC programs on June 30, no matter how good or bad their reception of their local TV signal is.

Customers living on the edges of the stations' coverage areas will lose that network programming on Dec. 31.

Consumers who lose their service will get advance notice in writing, the two sides said.