Public Interest Groups Oppose NCTA Appeal of Maine PEG Law Decision
NCTA's appeal of a U.S. District Court's finding federal law doesn't preempt Maine's public, educational and government access channel carriage provisions got criticism from public interest groups in 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals amicus briefs. Public Knowledge said Wednesday…
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(docket 20-1431) Cable Act language and legislative history are clear it doesn't preempt PEG provisions, and the lower court rightly ruled the Maine law's requirement that cable operators extend service to areas that meet a certain population density also wasn't preempted. The Community TV Association of Maine, Alliance for Community Media and Alliance for Communications Democracy said (in Pacer) the Cable Act specifically allows states to act outside individual franchises to enact consumer protection laws. NCTA in its plaintiff-appellant brief (in Pacer) in August said no part of the Cable Act's Section 531, covering PEG regulation, authorizes any part of the state's PEG regulation, nor does it allow a line-extension requirement without any consideration of issues like reasonableness or the cost to cablers.