Congress Should Kill 'Broadcast-Only Regulations,' NAB Tells House Lawmakers

NAB warned Congress against accepting the recommendations of pay-TV industry providers in any telecom rewrite. “The basic tier and buy through provisions buttress the policy goals ensuring that consumers have access to local programming, often times life-line programming,” NAB told House Commerce Committee lawmakers in late comments it submitted Tuesday night in response to a white paper. “Therefore, NAB urges the Committee to reject proposals by the pay-TV carriers to upend the basic tier making programming more expensive for viewers.” The white paper deadline was late last month. Its questions were pegged to the lawmakers’ broader ambition of overhauling the Communications Act. NAB said cross-ownership rules should not be retained, and advocated for repeal of “broadcast-only regulations.” NAB also cautioned Congress against revamping retransmission consent rules: “But the reality is the retransmission consent system provides strong incentives to complete retransmission negotiations in the marketplace before any disruption to the viewer occurs, and thus nearly all negotiations are completed on time.” TVFreedom, a broadcaster coalition including NAB, released its response Wednesday. “The argument that retransmission consent fees drive up consumer monthly bills presents a red herring,” TVFreedom told House lawmakers. “Legislation designed to support and advance free and local broadcast TV for the benefit of consumers and local markets is critical to the future of the U.S. video marketplace.” The broadcast exclusivity rules “enhance market efficiency by enabling TV stations that have negotiated exclusive programming rights in local markets to notify pay-TV providers of their contractual rights and to enforce those rights at the FCC,” the coalition said. The committee had not posted white paper responses by our deadline Wednesday.