A Brief Summary of the SHVA
The Satellite Home Viewer Improvement Act was passed into law in 1988, reenacted in 1994, and changed to the Satellite Home Viewer Improvement Act of 1999. The act allows satellite carriers to provide certain subscribers with a package of network affiliated stations as part of their service offering. Viewers eligible to receive this service are those subscribers who are not capable of receiving their local affiliates signal through the use of a rooftop antenna or who have not received network affiliated stations via cable within the past 90 days.
The purpose of the act is twofold. First, it was designed to allow viewers in areas unable to receive a signal from their local affiliate (the so-called "white areas") to receive network programming and secondly to protect the copyright area of local network affiliates. Although the basis of the act seems simple and clear cut, compliance with it has been difficult.
Monitoring compliance to the act has traditionally fallen into the hands of individual network stations.
If you are asking for a waiver to receive a distant network signal via satellite, you may know that Congress has passed a new law to govern distant signals. Your carrier may be able to tell you if you are "grand fathered" under the new law.
Accordingly, we suggest that you send a written request to your satellite company to determine your status under the new law. If you decide that you still want to obtain a waiver from us, the new law provides that you must submit that waiver request through your satellite carrier . They will then forward your request to us along with your activation date.
In the meantime, your request for a waiver will be denied until our receipt of your request from your satellite carrier.
If you'd like more details on the SHVA, click on this link to read the entire Satellite Home Viewer Improvement Act.
