ACA To Monitor 3.0 Terms Of Retrans Deals

The American Cable Association today told the FCC that it will keep track of upcoming carriage negotiations that include ATSC 3.0 provisions.

“In the next month, a substantial majority of ACA’s small- and midsize cable operators will be renegotiating thousands of retransmission consent agreements that expire at the end of this year. Because the commission chose not to adopt new rules preventing forced carriage of ATSC 3.0, broadcasters may now feel more liberated to make such demands — especially against ACA members who typically are both more susceptible to broadcast coercion (because they have less bargaining power) and suffer greater harm by forced carriage of ATSC 3.0 signals (because they have less capacity and less money to pay for equipment).

“ Should broadcasters insist on ATSC 3.0 carriage in their negotiations with ACA members … we will not hesitate to present these facts to the commission in a petition for reconsideration,” ACA wrote.