City may banish TV dishes from view

The Boston City Council, citing a proliferation of satellite television dishes across the city, is considering banning the devices from the front of buildings.

Saying that the dishes are potentially dangerous and increasingly hard to overlook in parts of the city where some buildings are festooned with them, councilors plan to consider a measure to confine the satellite television receivers to the back of buildings, out of public view.

``For some, it's an eyesore," said Council President Michael Flaherty, who sponsored the measure. A public hearing before the council's Public Utilities and Cable Communications Committee is scheduled for Friday.

Satellite dishes -- which give customers access to a wide array of programs broadcast around the world, at often slightly cheaper prices than cable -- have become an increasingly common feature of the urban landscape. In some Boston neighborhoods, they are on most houses, often mounted near windows and doors and the eaves of roofs. It is not unusual to see apartment buildings with seven or eight dishes protruding from the front.

The proposal to restrict them has plenty of backers in a city where architectural preservation is king. But there is also an angry outcry, particularly in immigrant communities where satellite television is often a main link to news and culture in far-away native countries.

Any ban the council ultimately approves would have to comply with a Federal Communications Commission regulation that prohibits restrictions on satellite dishes except for safety or historic reasons. The rule allows municipal governments to require that dishes be installed on the rear of residential buildings only as long as it doesn't result in poorer reception or higher cost for the consumer.

Satellite companies said they can install the dishes almost anywhere without added cost. But to provide good reception in Boston, the dishes must have unobstructed lines of sight to satellites fixed above the earth in the southern sky. Residents in single-family houses could opt to put the dishes in their backyards or atop their roofs. But in densely populated parts of the city where buildings may have many apartments and are packed closely together, there are fewer options.

``There's no other place to put it; I don't have any choice," said Tewodros Tanaye, a 25-year-old airport security guard from Ethiopia who had a dish installed several months ago to watch World Cup soccer games. The side of the apartment is blocked by other buildings, the back has no safe or convenient places to mount one, and his landlord wouldn't allow it to be placed on the roof, he said.

Such bans are rare across the country. A spokesman for DirecTV, which operates nationally, said no other community has banned dishes from building fronts, though historic districts or complexes governed by condominium associations impose restrictions.

He said satellite television companies are unfairly singled out by bans. ``Why not force cable to bury their lines in the ground?" said Robert Mercer, spokesman for DirecTV. ``What's so attractive about a bunch of cables?"

Among the problems Flaherty said he wants to address is the accumulation of unused satellite dishes on apartment buildings. He said companies don't remove the dishes when a customer cancels a subscription or moves to another home.

``Where there's a large turnover of tenants, there are multiple dishes that are basically defunct," Flaherty said. ``As a result, you're seeing buildings all across the city with multiple satellite dishes hanging off the fronts and sides of buildings."

Residents in some of the city's historic districts, including Beacon Hill and Back Bay, already face hurdles when installing satellite dishes. In other parts of the city, some residents say they want similar restrictions in their neighborhoods.

``We have buildings that have three floors, but there are six dishes hanging off the front," said Marygrace Gravallese, a 49-year-old East Boston resident who subscribes to cable. ``I'm sick and tired of looking at them. It makes me sick when I'm driving down the street. Somebody needs to do something."

Matt Viser can be reached at maviser@globe.com.