The FCC commissioner tells the American Cable Association’s Summit in Washington that he understood programming blackouts that sometimes accompany retrans negotiations “aggravate consumers. We don’t have the ability to dictate the outcome or to some extent the process of retransmission consent negotiations.” The group has meetings on the Hill and at the FCC on tap for Thursday.
ACA SUMMIT
Pai: Retrans Relief Must Come From Hill
If the American Cable Association was expecting the FCC to offer support for the industry’s campaign to eliminate retransmission consent, it didn’t get it from Commissioner Ajit Pai. “I don’t want to be the bearer of bad news, but we are a creature of Congress and under the Communications Act our authority is relatively circumscribed,” Pai said at the ACA Summit meeting in Washington Wednesday.
“It will be important for Congress, in consultation with the industry, to make any necessary changes,” the commissioner told the 150 representative of smaller cable companies convened to lobby against retransmission consent on Capitol Hill and at the FCC tomorrow.
Pai also told that cable operators that he understood programming blackouts that sometimes accompany retrans negotiations “aggravate consumers. We don’t have the ability to dictate the outcome or to some extent the process of retransmission consent negotiations,” the commissioner said.
Pai also said that his support for broadcast JSAs and SSAs should not be read as an endorsement of separately owned broadcast stations banding together to negotiate retransmission consent agreements with cable operators in their markets.
The question of whether to condone station collaboration on mutual retransmission negotiations is a separate issue that the agency is dealing with currently as part of a retransmission consent review.
“I’m going to wait until I see how things shake out … before making a final decision [on the issue],” Pai added.
BRAND CONNECTIONS
In her opening remarks, Colleen Abdoulah, ACA chairwoman and CEO of WOW! Internet Cable and Phone, said retrans consent reform is critical for cable customers. “Last year we saw TV stations stage a record number of signal drop-offs negatively affecting our customers,” she said.
“Millions of Americans found themselves without access to their local broadcast signals after TV stations cut off programming 91 times. This was a 78% increase over 2011,” she added.
Abdoulah also said ACA has been leading the charge against “coordinated negotiations” to jack up retransmission consent fees. “We have documented that the process is occurring in nearly 20% of the local TV markets,” she said, adding that ACA has “provided evidence that these coordinated negotiation can drive up the price of retransmission consent by at least 22%.”
Also at Wednesday’s session, Matt Polka, ACA president-CEO, said more than 150 cable operators were attending the meeting and have lined up almost 200 meetings on Thursday with federal lawmakers and FCC regulators. “We going to talk about reform [of the 1992 Cable Act], focusing on retransmission consent,” Polka said.
Comments (3)
John McElfresh says:
March 13, 2013 at 5:03 pm
Oh, those poor little cable systems! Cable built their business on the backs of broadcasters. They paid nothing for the signals their customers wanted most. Then they tried to keep the young new independent stations from competing with them in advertising till must carry came and went then came again. So now, as they say, the worm has turned. Live with it, you are still getting the local stations a hell of a lot cheaper than most of the channels you pay for that have far less viewers.
Mary Collin says:
March 13, 2013 at 11:32 pm
Let’s be honest here ,..I’ve been a broadcaster for over 50 years and been on cable for a large part of that but
since re-trans we get 25 to 40 cents and the cable companies charge the subscribers $1.00 to $1.25 for my station where is the hurt?
Jay Miller says:
March 14, 2013 at 11:41 am
Cable will be in it’s current form..Obsolete in 5 years.. What are they going to do when they start the alacarte Menu..I see $$ floating away….The consumer will dictate this..Not the cable or Satellite Companies!!! Have not these distributors figured out yet..IT’S ALL ABOUT CONTENT!!!