The Local Choice proposal is no boon to...
The Local Choice proposal is no boon to consumers, argued the spokesman for TVFreedom in a blog post Tuesday. TVFreedom, a coalition including NAB, has slammed the Senate proposal, which would overhaul retransmission consent rules to end TV blackouts, since…
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its initial circulation last month. “This proposal unfairly singles out only one kind of programming -- local TV stations -- for regulatory distribution mandates,” the TVFreedom spokesman wrote (http://bit.ly/1pFo0r7). “News flash: there will be no real savings for consumers under Local Choice. Viewers will continue to pay for their expensive cable programming bundle, and under this proposal will be forced to pay extra fees to access and manage their local broadcast TV station lineup as part of their pay-TV service.” The American Television Alliance (ATVA), consisting of some pay-TV industry stakeholders, has lobbied heavily for the proposal and bought several ads to promote it. The TVFreedom spokesman accused “the Washington pay-TV lobby” of “manufacturing a crisis regarding broadcast TV blackouts” and attacked the premises on which Sens. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., and John Thune, R-S.D., based their Local Choice proposal. Those lawmakers -- heads of the Commerce Committee -- say they plan to address Local Choice through Satellite Television Extension and Localism Act reauthorization, with markup expected Sept. 17. American Cable Association President Matt Polka shot back at TVFreedom, in an op-ed for The Hill. “Ironically, given the chance to salute an idea that took its name seriously, TVFreedom.org, a front group of the National Association of Broadcasters, has been nothing but hostile to the Rockefeller-Thune Local Choice proposal, slinging a lot of social media mud since the proposal first surfaced,” Polka wrote (http://bit.ly/1qYu75e), setting out to “debunk” what he considers falsehoods about Local Choice. “Unfortunately, TV Freedom.org prefers to engage in mythmaking, planting one fiction after another in the media, hoping fear and confusion will kill an adroitly crafted bipartisan idea that so clearly represents positive change for the forces of real TV freedom.” ACA belongs to ATVA. Tim Himmelwright, Service Electric Cable TV & Communications director-communications and public affairs, also wrote an op-ed for the Express-Times newspaper in Easton, Pennsylvania, praising Local Choice, at times echoing directly the language of ATVA (http://bit.ly/1lxe6Xn).