The chairs of the ABC, CBS, Fox and NBC Affiliate Boards say the current draft of the Satellite Television Access and Viewer Rights Act still includes provisions that are unfair to broadcasters and undermine viewers’ free access to local TV programming.
The 50 state groups tell Sens. Jay Rockefeller and John Thune that their retrans reform proposal creating a broadcast-only a la carte system of payment by cable subs “will diminish broadcast localism and harm consumers without actually providing consumers meaningful choice or meaningful cost savings [and] will likely become the slippery ‘a la carte’ slope that broadly upsets a vibrant and functioning video marketplace.”
The broadcaster advocacy group TVFreedom is pushing back on a new Senate retrans reform plan that would let cable and satellite subscribers pay for only the broadcast channels they want to watch. The “Local Choice” proposal from Sens. Jay Rockefeller and John Thune hits broadcasters too hard and does too little to change other problems in the marketplace, according to TVFreedom Director of Public Affairs Robert Kenny.
Their “Local Choice” plan would, in effect, let cable and satellite customers order TV stations on an a la carte basis, paying the stations’ price, thereby eliminating the retrans negotiation process.
Senator Jay Rockefeller asks the FCC to “collect all information necessary to understand the scope and effect” of any SSAs included in pending station sales.
Rockefeller’s Internet Video Bill Not All Bad
The lame duck senator’s Consumer Choice in Online Video Act has a lot wrong with it, not the least of which is a provision permitting what it calls “antenna rental services” (read Aereo). Not only does the bill say that the services are OK, but also that they “shall be exempt from paying retransmission consent fees.” However, the legislation starts an important conversation on how the law should treat online distributors that want to offer broadcast signals and other video programming.
Exclusives
Rockefeller Bill Could ‘Legitimize’ Aereo
Legislation introduced by Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller today could clear the way for Aereo and other similar online video distributors, allowing them to retransmit broadcast signal without compensation, says a communications lobbyist.
In his call for a GAO study, the Senate Commerce Committee Chairman says joint sales and shared services agreements that allow a broadcast group to operate multiple stations in markets where the FCC rules say it may own just one might “artificially serve to inflate retransmission consent rates … and drive up subscription fees for pay television consumers.”
Congressional reaction to Tom Wheeler’s nomination to be the next FCC chairman was sparse. But hotly anticipated was a statement from Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.), who campaigned heavily for his former staffer and FCC commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel. Rockefeller’s statement finally came Friday afternoon, two days after President Obama submitted the nomination. The statement from the chairman of the Commerce Committee, which has oversight of the FCC, was gracious, but brief.
As the Senate inches closer to considering a bipartisan proposal to expand gun background checks, Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) is offering to add his bill on the study of media violence as an amendment.
Does FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel want to be the next head of the FCC? It’s hard not to connect the political dots, based on a letter a majority of Senate Democrats sent President Obama recommending he select her for the job. The first signature on the letter signed by 37 Democrats is none other than Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.), Rosenworcel’s mentor and unabashed champion.
Sen. Jay Rockefeller, the chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee said that he intends to make one last attempt to give the FCC the legal authority to rein in violence in the media before retiring from the Senate in 2015.
Jay Rockefeller, chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee, says his Violent Content Research Act would authorize the National Academy of Sciences to study the impact of violent content, including video games and video programming, on children.
Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) is not giving up and plans to reintroduce his bill that calls for the National Academy of Sciences to study the impact of violent video games and programming on children. And now that he’s announced he will not seek re-election in 2014, the chairman of the Commerce Committee has nothing to lose by pursuing an aggressive agenda.
Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) strongly denied suggestions by Commerce Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) that any sort of settlement in the impasse over Grassley’s hold on FCC nominees Ajit Pai and Jessica Rosenworcel in the near future.
FCC nominees Jessica Rosenworcel and Ajit Pai received broad bipartisan support — but some tough questions — from Senate Commerce Committee members during a confirmation hearing on Wednesday. Panel Chairman Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) brushed aside a threat by Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), renewed yesterday, to block the nominees if they reach the floor.
News Corp. is unlikely to face a push by U.S. regulators to revoke any of its 27 U.S. broadcast television licenses as a result of a U.K. law-enforcement probe of alleged phone-hacking by a London newspaper. The FCC won’t involve itself in the U.K. probe, FCC chairman Julius Genachowski said yesterday.
Rockefeller: No Forced Spectrum Move
Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D- W. Va.) says he wants to get an incentive auction/emergency communications network bill passed by June, and certainly before the 10th anniversary of 9/11. But he also says broadcasters will not be forced off spectrum in the process.
