Number of TV Hours Blacked Out in Retrans Disputes Declining, NAB Says
The number of TV viewing hours disrupted by retransmission consent-borne blackouts was down again in 2015, and a minuscule fraction of TV viewing hours are blacked out annually, NAB said in a filing Monday in docket 15-216. NAB's filing was…
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to reinforce broadcasters' recent repeated assertions that the market is operating effectively and that arguments by multichannel video programming distributors and allies are overblown, as the FCC considers changes to the totality of circumstances test for good-faith retransmission consent negotiations. "While the 'crisis' alleged by the pay TV industry has no basis in reality, the appearance of a crisis ... directly serves its interest in government intervention in the retransmission consent marketplace," NAB said. Only by closing its totality of circumstances NPRM will the FCC "remove the incentives for pay TV providers to create service disruptions and thus promote the interests of viewers," NAB said. Its filing also included an analysis by BIA Kelsey Chief Economist Mark Fratrik of carriage interruptions from 2011 through 2015. During those five years, carriage blackouts affected roughly 0.015 percent of total annual hours seen in the U.S., roughly the same as in a similar look at 2006-2011, Fratrik said. "The average household is still more likely to be unable to view a local television station from electricity outages than from carriage interruptions caused by unsuccessful retransmission consent negotiations," he said. The total number of affected viewing hours in 2015 was 53 million, down from 68.5 million in 2014, which was itself down from 191 million in 2013, Fratrik said. That 53 million was about twice the 26.3 million affected viewing hours in 2011, according to Fratrik's analysis. In a separate filing Monday in the docket, NAB criticized the American TV Alliance for its use of a retransmission consent dispute between Nexstar Broadcasting and Cox Communications as reinforcing its call for totality of circumstances test reform (see [Ref:1602040041]). The two reached a new multiyear agreement Thursday, but ATVA's proposal on prohibiting blackout of marquee events -- such as Sunday's Super Bowl -- encourages broadcasters to withhold their consent to retransmission earlier but to provide that single event to be carried by the pay-TV provider, NAB said. "ATVA's own proposal therefore creates perverse incentives for broadcaster to avoid granting extensions during impasses that could expire too close to any event that might be considered 'marquee,'" it said. ATVA didn't comment.