The FCC Media Bureau was right to reject Allbritton Communications’ “frivolous...
The FCC Media Bureau was right to reject Allbritton Communications’ “frivolous claims of bad faith directed at rural cable operator Shentel,” an American Cable Association member, ACA CEO Matt Polka said late Friday of the bureau’s order (CD July 9…
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p13). “The absolutely wrong lesson to draw from Allbritton’s failed regulatory gambit at the FCC is that the 20-year-old retransmission consent regime is serving the public interest,” Polka said (http://xrl.us/bnf843). Broadcasters say retrans rules work. An executive at Allbritton had no comment. Shentel is “pleased” with the order, Chief Operating Officer Earle MacKenzie told us Monday. “The steps we took to inform our customers, along with our offer to refund the basic service for any customer cancelling in January 2012 due to WJLA, were outlined in our filing and the order,” he said of Allbritton’s allegations that the cable operator didn’t give sufficient notice to subscribers that the Washington TV station might be dropped. “Based on our customers’ response, it appears they thought the notice was adequate."