IN BRIEF

By John Eggerton -- Multichannel News, 3/1/2010 12:00:00 PM

Satellite License Re-up Stalls as Senate Adjourns

WASHINGTON — At press time Friday (Feb. 26), a U.S. Senate standoff over the cost of unemployment insurance held hostage an extension of the satellite compulsory-license reauthorization law.

The Senate adjourned without voting on a package of extensions, including a one-month extension of the Satellite Home Viewer Extension and Reauthorization Act, to March 28. The package was held up due to one Republican senator’s concerns about the impact of COBRA and unemployment- insurance benefits, also in the package.

At midnight on Feb. 28 (Sunday), unless the Senate is called back into session and acts, Dish Network and DirecTV’s licenses to deliver distant-network affiliate TV signals to viewers across the country were set to expire.

Howell Exits Discovery As Reorg Shakes Out

SILVER SPRING, MD. — Discovery Communications had some job cuts last week, including a senior vice president of communications, as it continues to reorganize its network groups.

SVP of communications and public aff airs Annie Howell, who oversaw public-relations efforts for Planet Green, was one of the employees (believed to be fewer than 10) who left as a continuation of organizational changes first announced in December 2009, a Discovery representative said.