Robert Kenny

Once charged by the NAB with throwing the communications equivalent of molotov cocktails at the cable industry, Robert Kenny has switched sides for a new regulatory communications role at Charter Communications. Former TV Freedom flamethrower Kenny has been hired by Charter, along with former Fox government affairs executive Maureen O’Connell, to work on and in Washington on behalf of the MSO.

Robert Kenny, director of public affairs for TVfreedom.org: “The ability of local broadcast TV stations to serve our nation’s local communities rests on the existence of viable revenue streams that Congress has traditionally made available to promote local television service. Compromising the ability of local TV stations to compete for such revenue streams would create a regulatory imbalance that would threaten the unique benefits of localism and ultimately jeopardize the future of local broadcast TV.”

Dish has joined two other pay-TV companies, Time Warner Cable and DirecTV, to form the American Television Alliance. ATVA’s strategy, led by the big three, is simple — to manufacture as many TV blackouts of both cable networks and local broadcast stations as possible in hopes that Congress will “reform” a system that ATVA’s members have deliberately tried to break.

TVFreedom.org’s Robert Kenny: “The pay TV industry has been pushing for video marketplace changes for the past few years that would provide them with an unfair regulatory advantage over TV broadcasters.  The motive: Pure greed on the part of cable and satellite TV providers.”