FCC Can, Should Amend Totality of Circumstances Test, ATVA Says
American TV Alliance repeated its case the FCC can and should change the rules for good-faith negotiation of retransmission consent, submitting a 292-page filing Wednesday in docket 15-216 that includes a collection of submissions from members and ATVA arguments on…
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the FCC's authority to make changes and reasons it should back ATVA ideas for such changes. Pointing to the authority given the FCC in the Communications Act and under the Satellite Television Extension and Localism Act Reauthorization Act of 2014, and related Copyright Act provisions, ATVA said none of its proposals for good-faith rules changes (see 1512010052) violate federal statute. In its filing, ATVA explained some of its proposed changes, saying broadcasters are inaccurately characterizing its proposed prohibition of blocking the transmission of content to certain viewers that they otherwise make broadly available for free online. It also said there's no First Amendment barrier to rules "banning such anticompetitive and anti-consumer conduct." ATVA similarly said there are no Copyright Act barriers because the proposed rule wouldn't force broadcasters to license their programming, but would apply only to programming already licensed or arranged to be distributed over the Internet. The ATVA filing includes past filings by the American Cable Association, Mediacom and Time Warner Cable.