Small- and medium-sized cable operators are telling members of Congress...

sought, in visits to Washington at this time last year, hearings in Congress on retrans and other programming issues, and “at the end of the year, I think there were six or seven or eight of them,” he later told reporters. Now “we're going to say ‘keep going, you're asking the right questions,'” Polka said. He cited a question by Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., at Tuesday’s Senate Commerce Committee hearing on sports programming costs. That query “doesn’t suggest necessarily that he is going to be the one leading the charge for reform, or if there will be [reform], but we're going to be reinforcing the message, that the retransmission consent model is broken,” Polka said. Broadcasters say retrans works and blackouts are relatively few when compared to the many deals that get renewed without an impasse. Polka criticized what he called “the out-of-control sports market” with demands for excessive rights’ fees and programmers that will “trip over themselves and fall over themselves” to bid to pay. Access for ACA members to “vertically integrated cable programming is still an issue, let’s make no mistake about it,” Polka said. The association will also reiterate its request, on which the FCC has sought comment, that program access rules acknowledge the National Cable Television Cooperative, he said. On preventing gun violence after December’s massacre at an elementary school in Newtown, Conn., ACA is “very committed to doing what we can with the things that are in our control” to educate parents on subjects related to kids’ viewing habits, Polka said. “We want to be part of that discussion, wherever it takes place."