House Dems Blast GOP’s FCC JSA Language

Key House Democrats Wednesday panned a GOP-backed legislative proposal to derail an FCC plan to crack down on joint sales agreements, raising doubts about the ability of broadcasters to win a legislative reprieve for the station combinations.

“I support the FCC’s tightening its attribution rules to address joint sales agreements between television stations,” said Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.), during a hearing before the House Communications and Technology Subcommittee today.

“I’m also concerned by [the] provision that would effectively bar the FCC from modifying its rules to close a loophole that broadcasters have been exploiting to circumvent the FCC’s media ownership rules,” added Rep. Anna Eshoo (D-Calif.) during the hearing.

At issue at the hearing was a GOP-backed discussion draft of legislation to reauthorize the Satellite Television Extension and Localism Act, or STELA.

One of the provisions included by subcommittee Republicans in the discussion draft could impede the ability of the FCC to follow through for years on its plan to block and undo JSAs.

The preemptive provision has the support of subcommittee’s chairman — Rep. Greg Walden (R-Ore.). “I am … very concerned about the FCC’s recently announced plans to dump joint sales agreements into their local media ownership calculations,” said Walden during the hearing.

But the opposition of key House Democrats raises doubt about the prospects for a provision that will have to be approved by the GOP-controlled House and the Democrat-controlled Senate before it can become law.

“I’m not prepared to support the bill in its current version,” said Waxman, adding that the preemption provision would “hamstring the FCC’s ability to address broadcaster coordination that could undermine the diversity of voices and lead to job losses.”

The FCC is slated to vote on Wheeler’s proposed JSA crackdown on March 31, blocking the formation of new JSAs and giving broadcasters up to two years to unwind existing ones — unless broadcasters can somehow persuade the FCC that the joint combos warrant a special waiver on public interest grounds.

Broadcast lobbyists are expected to try to keep the preemption provision in the STELA bill — or get one inserted into some other legislation — before any station combos may be required to unwind.

“We strongly oppose the extraordinarily regulatory path the FCC is taking,” said Marci Burdick, SVP of Schurz Communications and chairman of the National Association of Broadcasters TV board, in her testimony during the subcommittee hearing, adding that the FCC’s plan to require existing JSAs to unwind was “unprecedented and amazingly disruptive.”

“While often misunderstood, these [JSA] agreements benefit the public, particularly in small and medium markets where Schurz operates, through improved public service and enhanced transmission facilities,” Burdick said.

Another provision included in the discussion draft would eliminate a regulation that currently bars cable and satellite TV operators from dropping broadcast signals during retransmission consent disputes that occur during ratings sweeps periods.

Yet another provision in the draft bill would allow cable operators to decide whether to negotiate retrans agreements individually or jointly with TV stations that are linked together under joint sales agreements.