TVFreedom opposes the Local Choice legislation, which Senate...
TVFreedom opposes the Local Choice legislation, which Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., and ranking member John Thune, R-S.D., circulated Friday (CD Aug 11 p12). The initial proposal said the legislation could end the problem of TV blackouts, and…
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a senior Commerce aide told us Rockefeller and Thune “think this proposal could end some of the most troubling aspects of the retransmission consent system for consumers and should be seriously considered as part of the [Satellite Television Extension and Localism Act] reauthorization process.” NAB said Friday it opposes hitching the proposal to STELA. TVFreedom, a coalition of broadcast interests including NAB, attacked the proposal as well, dismissing it as a “last minute” effort. Local Choice “curiously targets America’s most-watched programming -- broadcast TV -- as the culprit for rising cable bills even though these channels collectively amount to a pittance on the price of a monthly pay-TV bill,” a TVFreedom spokesman said in a statement. “This approach fails to offer consumers real programming choices or serious economic relief, yet forces them to continue overpaying for rarely watched cable channels such as Spike TV and TruTV.” The American Television Alliance, a coalition of pay-TV companies and other groups like Public Knowledge that want to overhaul retrans rules, praised the legislation, calling it “a solid bipartisan compromise and a real win for consumers,” according to a statement it issued. “It would provide consumers with great choice and transparency and would end retrans blackouts once and for all.” Guggenheim Partners analyst Paul Gallant predicted the proposal faces an uphill battle but may have more long-term potential, in a research note he sent to investors. “If Republicans take the Senate this fall, Sen. Thune would chair the Commerce Committee,” Gallant said. “Should his LOCAL CHOICE proposal fail in 2014, we could well see Congress try to update the 1992 Cable Act -- including the retrans provisions -- starting in January 2015.” Gallant suspects the legislation would face obstacles due to the uncertainty it creates for broadcasters, how late in the STELA reauthorization it already is and the mixed reactions other stakeholders may have. “We anticipate that content companies (Time Warner, Disney, Fox, Viacom, Discovery) also would oppose the LOCAL CHOICE proposal because a positive public response to broadcast channel a la carte could lead to discussion of cable channel a la carte, which we assume content companies don’t want,” Gallant said.