The FCC should make public and seek comment on the...
The FCC should make public and seek comment on the software the FCC plans to use to repack the TV band after the incentive spectrum auction, executives of TV broadcasters that own NBC affiliates said in meetings with FCC commissioners…
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Robert McDowell and Jessica Rosenworcel and their aides, plus aides to the other three commissioners, an ex parte notice shows. During the meetings, they also talked about broadcast spectrum, media ownership rules and retransmission consent, the notice said (http://xrl.us/bodd8r). “As the DTV transition showed, predictive models are not always accurate and if errors result in loss of service, the public will be harmed,” and a goal of the law that authorized the auction -- to protect the broadcasters that remain on the air and their audiences -- will go unfulfilled, they said. On ownership, they cited the importance of joint and shared services agreements to broadcasters: “Restricting such arrangements would not increase diversity or localism, but would have the opposite effect by eliminating efficiencies that promote stronger public service.” During some of the meetings, FCC officials asked whether shared services agreements typically involve joint retransmission consent negotiations. The affiliates said yes, such arrangements were common, and “there is nothing improper about these arrangements and that the good faith negotiation rules already apply” to make sure such negotiations between broadcasters and pay-TV distributors are fair. Additionally, the retransmission consent rules are working “as Congress intended,” they said.