NHMC, Broadcasters Oppose Effective Competition Rebuttable Presumption
The FCC shouldn’t adopt a rebuttable presumption of effective competition for all cable companies, a group of broadcasters and the National Hispanic Media Coalition said in separate meetings with agency staff, according to filings posted in docket 15-53 Wednesday. Representatives…
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of ABC, CBS, Disney, Fox and NAB said the proposed rule is unlawful. "It is odd, indeed, for the FCC to go far beyond what Congress just instructed it to do; namely, make mere administrative changes for small cable operators,” the broadcasters said. Changing the rule and taking all cable beyond rate regulation could be “disastrous” for Latinos, said NHMC, since it could lead to higher cable rates. NAB has argued the rule change could lead to cable companies no longer having to place local broadcasting on the basic tier. That’s a concern for Latinos as well, NHMC said. “If cable operators are allowed to move Latino programming to more expensive cable tiers, it is very likely that viewership and revenues of Latino networks would drop, making it more difficult to finance and produce programming that serves Latino audiences.”