American Television Alliance Launches National Campaign Backing Local Choice

The American Television Alliance (ATVA) recently kicked off a full-throttle national campaign backing Local Choice. The retrans-focused coalition, which includes the American Cable Association, Public Knowledge, satellite companies and USTelecom, is advertising in 15 to 20 states, its spokesman told us, declining to say which states or why they were targeted. Local Choice promises “the biggest viewer celebration ever,” one ATVA newspaper ad said, showing fireworks inside a TV screen and promising a day with no TV blackouts: “A day when you can choose which local broadcast channels you want, and clearly see what you are paying for them on your bill.” ATVA’s print, digital and radio ads ask people to call lawmakers in support of Local Choice.

The ATVA spokesman registered localchoice.tv Aug. 8, the day staff for Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., and ranking member John Thune, R-S.D., first circulated the Local Choice proposal. The Web address directs people to the ATVA website, which includes a form for writing to members of Congress. ATVA also bought promoted tweets as part of a Twitter campaign backing Local Choice, the spokesman said.

Rockefeller and Thune posted a three-minute video explaining Local Choice on their respective Democratic and Republican YouTube channels (http://bit.ly/1lbW9gX). The video dubbed the proposal “simple” and “fair.”

Senate Commerce Committee members seem to be keeping an open mind about Local Choice, said a media industry lobbyist. None are “freaking out,” he said, suggesting good prospects for Local Choice becoming attached to STELA and advancing out of committee. Members are waiting to see the bill itself, said a Democratic Senate staffer. It has been fairly quiet lately due to recess, but Local Choice has sparked many practical questions, the staffer said, such as how would the station election process happen? When? How would consumers be able to bounce back and forth with their station choices? Could they selectively pick one based around big events like the Super Bowl? Would pricing change month to month? What would the precise FCC role be? Committee staffers seem far along with the STELA drafting, and the Democratic staffer expects its release as soon as within the next two weeks, with many of the debated provisions live.

Local Choice Questions

NAB has long lobbied for a clean STELA reauthorization, opposes attaching Local Choice to STELA, and has stayed neutral on the House STELA legislation passed in July, which includes some tweaks to the video market. “We're encouraging our member TV stations to meet with their members of Congress over the August recess to explain our support for a clean STELA,” said an NAB spokesman.

"Significant questions remain” about how Local Choice “would be implemented, the resulting impact on broadcast programming and localism, and the treatment of broadcast channels relative to cable programmers,” said a two-page NAB set of talking points on STELA reauthorization, circulated by industry officials and dated August 2014. “Such a drastic change in the broadcast TV laws should not be considered in the context of STELA reauthorization.” Among the bullet points are conclusions that the House STELA reauthorization bill included “unnecessary reforms” and that the Senate Commerce Committee bill may take a “broader” and “more harmful approach.”

TVFreedom, a coalition of broadcast interests including NAB, plans to continue battling against the “pitfalls” of Local Choice, its spokesman said, declining to give specific details of what it’s doing. Local Choice will drive up costs for consumers on their cable and satellite TV bills, the spokesman said. He suggested the proposal may cause more service disruptions, particularly for smaller cable companies, as technicians allow for the a la carte system required. In such a model, there would also be winners and losers, which could threaten diversity, the spokesman added.

Comcast declined comment on Local Choice. But the cable operator, which owns NBCUniversal, said last month in congressional testimony (http://1.usa.gov/1mvuHGc) that it “generally” backs a clean five-year STELA reauthorization and “does not support addressing issues or concerns associated with the current retransmission consent regime as part of STELA reauthorization or through other legislative action.” NCTA has also stayed quiet on Local Choice so far, with some lobbyists speculating the cable industry may not want to engage in a debate about a la carte.

"A lot of our members took interest in the Local Choice proposal, and they've been looking at how it would work, how it would be implemented,” said American Cable Association Senior Vice President-Government Affairs Ross Lieberman. “Our lines of communication with the committee are open.” ACA has strongly backed the proposal. Senate Commerce asked for feedback, Lieberman observed, noting these ACA member questions are “not necessarily problems” so much as practical considerations.

The NAB talking points listed several “provisions being considered for inclusion” in Senate Commerce’s draft, including in addition to Local Choice the elimination of the sweeps week prohibition, removal of stations from the cable basic tier, a ban on joint retrans negotiations, “restricting content owners’ ability to control their online programming,” overhaul of designated market areas and “forced carriage/binding arbitration.” The House STELA bill included some of those provisions, such as the axing of the sweeps weeks prohibition and ban on joint retrans negotiations. TiVo and the cable industry have warred over whether any STELA bill should include a ban on the set-top box integration ban (CD Aug 25 p8), as the House version did.

Rockefeller has also wanted to overhaul online video distributor rules for the past year, introducing legislation last fall that he may attach to STELA. “Some in Congress have talked about dictating to content owners when, where and how local broadcast content is available online,” the NAB talking points said. “This kind of heavy-handed government involvement in programming rights would stifle the already abundant content currently available.” STELA will expire at year-end unless Congress reauthorizes it. Senate Commerce is eyeing Sept. 17 as the markup date, industry officials have said and the Senate staffer confirmed. (jhendel@warren-news.com)