Today, the House Agriculture Committee is expected to vote on a bill that will pave the way for a $1.25 billion loan guarantee program funding satellite delivery of local channels into rural areas. Republican Bob Goodlatte and Democrat Rick Boucher, both House members from Virginia, are sponsoring the rural TV measure. Their legislation, the Rural Local Broadcast Signal Act, was introduced last week with 110 co-signors. The two lawmakers began working on a rural TV program in the fall. The rural TV effort has won praise from top lawmakers. House Speaker Dennis Hastert, in comments he delivered to members of the National Association of Broadcasters Tuesday, said the rural TV program must pass Congress. The loan guarantee was once part of the landmark Satellite Home Viewer Improvement Act, which was signed into law by President Clinton in November. The rural TV program was dropped in the final version of legislation due to opposition from Phil Gramm, a Texas Republican and Chair of the Senate Banking Committee.

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TV Guide Reports Fourth Quarter

TV Guide reported a net loss for fourth quarter 1999 and announced plans to sell a portion of its SSDS business. TV Guide said its fourth-quarter loss was $19.3 million, compared to net income of $24.1 million reported for the same period a year earlier. Cash flow jumped 64 percent to $56.4 million when compared to the $34.4 million recorded in the previous fourth quarter. The company, which is being bought for $9.2 billion by Gemstar International, also announced it will sell part of its SSDS unit. SSDS, which provides computer consulting and employee recruiter help, has 330 workers and annual sales of about $37 million.

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Loral Announces $400 Million Offering

Loral Space and Communications said it will offer $400 million in 6% Series D convertible redeemable preferred stock. The company plans to use funds from the offering to grow broadband services and invest more money in the Loral Global Alliance. Loral's broadband effort hopes to launch two-way Ku-Band consumer services in early 2001. The company also plans to offer a Ka-Band broadband service. The broadband platforms may require around $3.5 billion in capital, Armand Musey of Banc of America Securities said. The Loral Global Alliance consists of Loral satellite providers and partners around the world. They include Loral Skynet in the United States, SatMex and Europe*Star.

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Regional Net Drops Fox Sports

The Sunshine Network, Florida's largest regional sports channel with more than 5 million cable and satellite homes, will drop national programming from Fox Sports Net and replace it with its own local and regional sports programming. The switch begins March 1. "Electing to eliminate national sports programming previously provided by Fox Sports Net, Sunshine Network will instead focus on its primary goal of doing what regional sports networks are designed to do - provide comprehensive coverage of local and regional sports teams and properties for local sports fans," the network said in a statement. Professional sports franchises contracted with Sunshine include hockey's Tampa Bay Lightning and basketball's Orlando Magic and Miami Heat. The network also covers Florida State University, University of Florida, University of Central Florida and high school sports. Sports networks that aren't part of the Fox Sports slate of regional channels still get a lot of their news and national programming from the Fox unit. Those networks include Home Team Sports, Empire Sports Network and Midwest Sports Channel.

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COMPETITIVE WATCH: Wink Gets Sony