Tailor Rules Narrowly for Defining MVPDs, DiMA, MPAA Urge FCC

The FCC should use extreme caution and tailor its rules narrowly for multichannel video programming distributors, said media organizations and content distributors in comments posted Wednesday in docket 14-261. The commission should “be slow to interfere” with the evolving concept of TV, said the Digital Media Association (DiMA) comment. The commission should be cautious about changing the definition of MVPDs, especially when the over-the-top (OTT) market is “vibrant and growing,” it said. Changes to the definition of MVPD should be “narrowly tailored to a well-defined class of online video programming distributors,” DiMA said. It approved that the rulemaking rejected a “one size fits all” approach and drew distinctions between Internet-based MVPDs and Internet-based providers of video content, it said. OTT providers should be unaffected regarding program access and carriage rules, it said. Producing and distributing video content is “already fraught with significant risk in this competitive environment,” said MPAA's comment. Changing the current content market could hinder investment and experimentation, it said. Consumer demand, not the government, should determine content and linear and other online distribution methods, MPAA said. The rules proposed in the NPRM raise issues under the First Amendment and copyright law, and also threaten the diversity of programming and licensing relationships among content creators, distributors and programmers, MPAA said. The commission should qualify Sky Angel as an MVPD (see 1503050058), Sky Angel said in its comment. Its program access complaint against Discovery has been stagnant for 27 months, while the commission imposes a five-month standard to resolve these complaints, Sky Angel said. Sky Angel wants the pro-consumer, pro-competition protections from program access rules and asked the commission to grant its renewed petition for temporary standstill, it said.