After 25 years, he says it’s time to embrace change. The search for a new president and CEO is near completion, and the trade group plans to announce the search committee’s selection during the ACA Connects Board meeting in mid-May.
TV Stations Flip-Flop On Consumer Choice
American Cable Association President Matthew Polka: “The arrival of CBS All Access means at least two positive developments: The forces in favor of consumer choice have won the debate and critics like TVFreedom need to find a new agenda because it is impossible for broadcasters to explain how it’s possible to be ‘just a little a la carte.’ “
Super Bowl Spoiler: NFL TV Deals Blitz Public
I am quite troubled by the soaring price of monthly cable and satellite TV bills fueled by hyperinflationary increases in TV rights fees won by the NFL and many other sports organizations. Non-sports pay TV subscribers are massively subsidizing sports viewers by an estimated $3 billion annually. A sports tier designed to reflect actual consumer demand for NFL games, golf tournaments, and baseball doubleheaders has the potential to allocate programming expenses more fairly within the pay TV universe.
American Cable Association President Matthew Polka says “If CBS, NBC and Fox want to risk billions in their dealings with the NFL, that’s their business. But broadcasters should not be able to rely on the government’s broken retransmission consent and cable carriage rules as the means for them to recoup the cost of their corpulent NFL contracts.”
The cable trade association says consumers typically pay higher retransmission consent fees while receiving diminished local news services under such deals.
The cable trade group says that since the FCC lacks the authority to impose outage requirements on broadband providers, the commission should “endorse the establishment of an industry working group” to create voluntary rules.
