Broadcast affiliates warned Senate Commerce leaders that the...

unfair,” in a joint letter Thursday (http://bit.ly/1tPXg9h). “Most troubling is the provision that grants the FCC new authority over several aspects of the broadcast business which no clear record exists to support, and does so without extending that same regulatory authority to cable and satellite companies with whom local stations compete,” said chairmen of the big-four affiliate boards. The bill, which would reauthorize the Satellite Television Extension and Localism Act, imposes “negotiation limitations on broadcasters while allowing the largest cable companies in the country to engage in the exact same behavior,” the broadcasters said. “The draft bill also is problematic because it asserts unprecedented extension of FCC regulatory authority over private marketplace negotiations, a step that is contrary to the public interest since it would impede the ability of local broadcast stations to compete in a highly competitive video marketplace for popular national entertainment and sports programming.” The co-founders of Bounce TV, an over-the-air network targeting African Americans, wrote a separate letter to Senate Commerce leaders and argued the retrans provisions would “do serious harm to many local TV station affiliates that have helped us launch Bounce TV,” praising free-market retrans negotiations (http://bit.ly/WUn2dR). The National Consumers League sent a letter to Commerce leaders asking that they return Local Choice to the bill draft -- it was dropped last week after broadcaster outcry over the broadcast a la carte proposal (CD Sept 11 p6). NCL “has long supported federal policies that would end blackouts of programming stemming from retransmission consent negotiations between broadcasters and multichannel video programming distributors,” it said (http://bit.ly/1qsTOjw). “We also support additional choice and bill transparency for cable television subscribers.” Local Choice should become law next year, said the American Television Alliance in a statement Thursday. The coalition, which has many pay-TV companies and Public Knowledge among members, had declined comment the previous day on initial reports that Local Choice would no longer be considered as part of the Commerce STELA reauthorization bill. “Local Choice remains a simple and elegant solution to fix our broken system of retransmission consent,” said the alliance (http://bit.ly/1oD3KkI). It reiterated its backing for the STELA reauthorization bill in other respects. That legislation includes “important reforms that will provide relief for consumers around the country,” the group said. Commerce is expected to mark up the bill Wednesday.