For changes to cable channel buyer group program access...
For changes to cable channel buyer group program access rules to work, the FCC should let all mid-sized multichannel video programming distributors participate in such groups, not just MVPDs with fewer than 3 million subscribers, said Cox Communications. Executives met…
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with Chief Bill Lake and others in the Media Bureau’s front office to share Cox’s concerns (CD Dec 18 p5) on an American Cable Association proposal for the agency to set the buying-group safe harbor threshold, for co-ops and the like to take advantage of program access rules, at 3 million subscribers. ACA’s plan is “flawed,” said a handout from the meeting included in an ex parte filing posted Friday in docket 12-68 (http://bit.ly/10A9otT). “Today’s programming market features four MVPDs with more than 12 million subscribers.” ACA’s plan “is premised solely on allowing MVPDs” that are in National Cable Television Cooperative agreements “to enjoy buying group protections,” said the handout. “This narrow result will not remedy imbalances in today’s market.” What matters in getting pricing discounts on cable programming is “the overall size of the buyer -- in this case, the buying group -- not the size of individual group members,” said Cox.