Retrans Rules Need To Include Pricing Disclosure Requirements, MVPD Group Says
Changes in retransmission consent negotiation rules must include market transparency and price discovery mechanisms so that small and midsized multichannel video programming distributors in particular have a modicum of leverage, a consortium of MVPDs and advocacy groups said in an…
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FCC filing posted Wednesday in docket 10-71. "Unrestrained by market forces or any requirement that they justify their price demands, broadcasters are free to pursue a 'sky's the limit' approach ... that is antithetical to the concept of good faith negotiations," said CenturyLink, Consolidated Communications, FairPoint Communications, the Independent Telephone & Telecommunications Alliance, Mediacom, NTCA, Public Knowledge and TDS Telecommunications in a joint letter. Current good-faith negotiation requirements put no onus on broadcasters "to explain, justify or substantiate that its price demands reflect competitive marketplace considerations," the MVPD consortium said. While the FCC in the past has explicitly rejected requiring information sharing by broadcasters, "the approach adopted by the Commission is not working" because good-faith negotiations "cannot take place when one of the negotiating parties holds all the cards," the letter writers said. The FCC should require that as part of the totality of circumstances standard for good faith negotiations that parties in retrans talks "disclose relevant information substantiating and verifying their bargaining claims" -- which would mean at the minimum that broadcasters document market prices or prices paid by other MVPDs when claiming those as reasons as rationale for price demands, the group said. A retrans NPRM has been on circulation (see 1508120051).