Present rules prevent Dish Network and DirecTV from importing distant local signals during programming related blackouts. Echostar says that should change.
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Here are the proposal that Dish is lobbying the FCC in relation to carriage disputes.
Perhaps there's an aspect I'm not seeing, but what would be the harm of providing national feeds of the major networks (such as NYC stations for the Eastern and Central time zones, Denver stations for the MTZ, and LA stations for the PTZ)
via satellite, or even cable for that matter, in tandem with the local network affiliates?
Here's my reasoning: by and large, viewers are still going to want localized news, sports, and other such programming. National feeds couldn't provide that. And local pre-emption of network offerings is not nearly as prevalent as it was in the 1960s and 1970s (stations in some markets did it with a vengeance, such as Cincinnati). If the network feeds were put up in the 100+ channel tiers, and the locals were still on low channels (as is usually the case), viewers would have to make a deliberate effort to go all the way up "on the dial" (figuratively speaking) to search out the network feeds, but they would be there if desired. In the case of the three markets I mentioned, unless it would be far-flung prairie counties to the north and east of Denver (and then there's Grand Junction, which struggles), I doubt a preference for the major-market stations would emerge (and the Denver market already has a lot of those counties anyway, due to historical viewing preferences), and those rural counties have minuscule populations. At the end of the day, Denver stations don't cover events in Scottsbluff and Sheridan. As to NYC and LA, those markets are pretty much set in stone, and viewers in Connecticut, eastern Pennsylvania, and Santa Barbara aren't going to quit wanting local news --- Scranton and Hartford stations would have nothing to fear.
And in Canada, large lineups of stations from throughout the country (and even from the US, such as Boston, Spokane, Detroit) are freely available on cable, though I'm assuming the US stations have the life sim-subbed out of them, and so far as I am aware, local stations are not harmed. Even though broadcasting in Canada is more national in scope than in the US, they, too, have local news and viewers who want to see it. Someone in Halifax isn't going to prefer Toronto or Vancouver news over their own.
The only thing such an arrangement would do, is to remove local stations' leverage --- "if you want to provide ABC, you have to carry us" --- but if it were applied nationally, the playing field would be level. And ADIs and must-carry of in-market stations would still exist.
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