Large Telcos Join MVPDs in Clash With Broadcasters, Content Companies Over Exclusivity Rules
Large telcos supported eliminating FCC network non-duplication and exclusivity rules, while broadcasters and large content companies fired back at multichannel video programming distributors (MVPDs) for including calls for retransmission consent reform in the proceeding focused on exclusivity rules. MVPDs, direct broadcast satellite companies and Time Warner Cable echoed their calls for elimination, in reply comments, due last week, in docket 10-71.
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LIN Media and other broadcasters opposed requests from pay-TV providers and Dish Network for more retransmission consent changes in the proceeding. Most of the requests aren’t contemplated in the further notice and, “apart from their substantive infirmities, are beyond the scope of this proceeding,” LIN said (http://bit.ly/1nGZMfa).
LIN opposed American Cable Association’s request for rules prohibiting third-party interference. ACA wants the FCC to require that all broadcast stations have the right to permit retransmission anywhere, “without regard to geographic limitations, and that no broadcaster electing retransmission consent has the right to enforce exclusivity,” it said. To take a hard line with all broadcasters, an MVPD would only need to “black out one broadcaster until that broadcaster submits to the MVPD’s demand to grant nationwide retransmission rights,” LIN said. Sinclair also fired back at ACA, saying the association wants the government to prohibit commercially standard, privately negotiated agreements to benefit ACA’s members (http://bit.ly/1riQ1St).
NAB urged the FCC to reject calls by some MVPDs to prohibit Internet blocking during retransmission consent impasses. Content providers aren’t under any legal or regulatory obligation to offer online content “and there is no statutory authority for the commission to compel any video provider, including broadcasters, to do so,” it said (http://bit.ly/1rEAUok). NAB opposed USTelecom’s request to eliminate must-buy provisions and basic tier requirements. The FCC can’t legally revise or remove basic tier requirements, which ensure that channels offering certain critical local information are available on a nondiscriminatory basis to all cable subscribers, it said.
21st Century Fox and The Walt Disney Company claimed in joint comments (http://bit.ly/1lEh0nG) that good faith rules addressing retransmission consent negotiations “have no place in any conversation about the relationship between networks and their affiliates."
AT&T, CenturyLink and Verizon urged the FCC to eliminate network non-duplication rules. Stations and cable systems are competing against multiple cable systems and online video distributions systems for viewers, “and the record shows that the fees broadcasters are now able to obtain through the retransmission consent process are growing rapidly,” Verizon said (http://bit.ly/UyvDSe). AT&T also called (http://bit.ly/1rEBoep) for fundamental retransmission consent revision, including a formal process to provide for interim carriage during retrans disputes and stronger good faith negotiation requirements.
Scripps supports retaining the rules and backed the NFL, agreeing that without the program exclusivity rules, NFL football broadcasts “would migrate to a subscription-based service if local television broadcast stations are unable to protect the exclusivity of that programming,” Scripps said (http://bit.ly/WHmtVz). Scripps also reaffirmed concerns by the ABC, CBS and NBC affiliates that repeal or modification of the rules would create “insurmountable contractual and enforcement problems” for affiliates, networks and other program providers, it said.
Public utilities opposed to keeping network non-duplication rules argued that allowing MVPDs to import distant signals “would provide a critical safety valve against unreasonable retransmission consent demands of local broadcasters,” American Public Power Association said (http://bit.ly/1qEfp9k).