DirecTV 'Misleading' Subscribers Over STELAR, NAB Says

DirecTV advertising warning of TV channels being lost unless Congress reauthorizes the Satellite Television Extension and Localism Act is "disingenuous at best, deceptive at worst," NAB President Gordon Smith said in a letter Thursday to AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson. STELAR "was never intended to be permanent" and the number of U.S. households not getting local broadcast signals via DirecTV is small, Smith said. He said most DirecTV subscribers face no impact if STELA expires, and AT&T is "sadly misleading" them. He said AT&T's DirecTV doesn't need STELAR to provide local broadcast signals in the 210 U.S. TV markets. The telco didn't comment.