NTCA wants Congress to focus on outdated program...

of Satellite Television Extension and Localism Act reauthorization. “Given the clear link between access to video content and broadband deployment, Congress should be concerned about the FCC’s inaction, which allows broadband deployment and adoption to be impeded by outdated program access rules,” said the response to an inquiry of Senate Commerce to a variety of stakeholders. “Congressional attention to this matter is particularly timely, as the prospect of cable giants Comcast and Time Warner Cable joining forces will only exacerbate the protracted fight being waged by small video distributors to secure programming under reasonable and affordable terms.” NTCA advocated for changes to retransmission consent negotiations as part of STELA. It said Congress should “strengthen the good faith negotiating standards and clarify what constitutes a per se violation” and kill the non-duplication and syndicated exclusivity rules. “There is ample evidence before the FCC showing that these rules provide broadcasters with a ‘one-sided level of protection’ and artificially-inflated bargaining leverage in retransmission consent negotiations, and are thus no longer justified,” it said. Broadcasters have strongly argued on many occasions for a clean reauthorization of STELA, which wouldn’t address broader video market issues. NTCA said Congress shouldn’t make cable operators retain retrans stations on the basic tier and that technology has “outpaced the need for existing rules” of the set-top box navigation and security function integration ban. NTCA pointed to one laudable aspect of the Consumer Choice in Online Video Act, introduced last fall by Chairman Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va. “Section 668 of S. 1680, which would prevent programmers from arbitrarily blocking all consumers of certain providers from access to online content as discussed above, particularly merits serious consideration,” NTCA said.