AT&T Hypocritical When Backing Retransmission Consent Changes, NAB Says
AT&T has gone through a "Kafka-esque metamorphosis" with its stance on retransmission consent reform, a hypocritical flip-flop from its traditional position favoring a light regulatory touch, NAB said in a filing Thursday in docket 15-216. In the filing, NAB contrasted…
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AT&T's comments on issues like data roaming, intercarrier compensation and mobile spectrum holdings -- in which the company decried excessive regulation -- with its advocacy in proposed changes to good-faith negotiation rules (see 1603170056), where AT&T is pushing for a variety of rules on broadcaster actions. "One might wonder: is AT&T making a drastic philosophical shift across the board?" NAB said, saying the company "is not alone among its pay TV brethren in abandoning its traditional regulatory philosophy in the lone context of retransmission consent advocacy" and pointing to Verizon and New Charter. "However, AT&T's role reversal is particularly noteworthy" since the company has "unmoored itself from its longtime support of measured and smart regulation," NAB said. AT&T didn't comment.