William Tauzin: “Competition to cable is not real until the local signals are part of the package. We all know that the local television…”

“Competition to cable is not real until the local signals are part of the package. We all know that the local television signals are the part of the television that is watched the most. They are the programs that people most desire in that package. And when they cannot get those local signals from the satellite distributor, they have to receive, instead, long-distance signals. Now, the awful truth about what the librarian did was to say to satellite consumers that not only are they to be penalized by not having the local signals, but they are going to have to pay more than the cable subscriber for these long-distance signals, just to hit them one more time. That is so unfair. Getting this straightened out in this bill is important, but my friend makes such a valid point. This is but one of the many pieces of the puzzle we have to solve in order to make sure that consumers in America have real choices in true packages that contain both the local signals and all the other wonderful cable programming that the cable industry rightfully takes great pride in having provided to America.”