Congress Should Include Local Choice in Communications Act Rewrite, Ritter Says
Ritter Communications’ recent lobbying on Local Choice is due to its own retransmission consent negotiations and struggles, Vice President-External Affairs John Strode told us. In late October, Ritter, a member of NTCA with customers in Arkansas and Tennessee, released a…
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video praising the broadcast a la carte proposal, stalled in the Senate, and began asking customers to talk to lawmakers (see 1410290058). “Even though Local Choice was removed” from the Senate Commerce Committee’s Satellite Television Extension and Localism Act reauthorization proposal this fall, “we believe that it should be a part of the proposed Communications Act rewrite that will begin in the next Congress,” Strode said. “We are trying to put this info in front of our customers and get them involved in communicating to members of Congress that they like Local Choice and want to see it move forward. We are in the middle of retransmission consent negotiations and expect that our costs will go up significantly as a result. This video then also helps tell our customers why that increase is happening.” He called the retrans consent system “broken.” Broadcasters strongly opposed Local Choice following its introduction this fall.