Broadcasters, Cable Square Off at FCC on Retransmission Consent

Broadcasters and cable operators bickered over the FCC’s media ownership review, in reply comments filed late Tues. Retransmission consent spats (CD Jan 17 p3) show why the FCC shouldn’t let a company own more than one top-4 TV station in a market, said Bend Cable, Suddenlink and the American Cable Assn. (ACA). Broadcasters rejected arguments by Suddenlink

- one of the few cable operators to opine on retransmission consent in the first round of comments to the FCC - which said competition wouldn’t be hurt by allowing combined ownership of popular TV stations. The FCC should lift duopoly rules, said NAB, Smaller Market TV Stations (SMTS) and individual broadcasters.

A high-profile retransmission consent impasse between Mediacom and Sinclair spurred public and Hill scrutiny of carriage talks. The companies should resolve their dispute through binding arbitration, “so consumers will not lose access,” Chmn. Martin told a Wed. news briefing where he spoke of cable and broadcast regulation (see separate report on this issue). “I continue to believe that [arbitration] would be best,” he said.

“Evidence makes clear that retaining the duopoly rule, as opponents urge, will neither increase diversity nor enhance localism,” NAB said: “These arguments are inconsistent with the public interest and should be rejected.” The duopoly rule especially hurts TV stations in smaller markets, SMTS said: “The public in these markets cannot wait for relief until the next quadrennial review, because the present and future health of smaller market stations is suffering long-term damage.”

NCTA took the unusual step of chiming in on media rules because of retransmission consent complaints, it said in its first comments on the rulemaking. Retransmission consent is unique because no FCC rule bars a TV station from tying rights for a cable operator to carry it to a 2nd, top-4 station, it said. Broadcasters can use local marketing agreements (LMAs) to avoid duopoly rules, NCTA wrote: “To prevent anticompetitive abuse, the ownership rules need to close this loophole… An LMA that gives two top-four broadcast stations in a market -- stations that cannot, under current rules be commonly owned - the right to jointly negotiate retransmission consent would not result in pro- competitive efficiencies.” The FCC should “consider a similar prohibition on common control of multicast broadcast streams of more than one of the ‘big four’ networks on a single station license,” Bend said.

Even with multicasting, TV stations need to get out from under the duopoly rule, said Belo and other broadcasters. “The prospect for multicasting is not an easy substitute for the regulatory relief called for in this proceeding,” Belo said: “To multicast, broadcasters must incur enormous programming expenditures and sacrifice at least some of their capacity.” The FCC should junk rules on newspaper-broadcast cross-ownership, many commenters said. Some, including SMTS, were silent on that issue, pushing mainly to ease duopoly rules.

Tribune’s owning the L.A. Times and KTLA benefits the public, the company said in separate comments, replying to a Media Alliance petition against renewing KTLA’s license. “Many of [KTLA’s] news and public affairs programs were significantly enhanced by virtue of the combination,” Tribune said, citing awards that the station and paper have won since they came under common ownership with Tribune’s takeover of Times Mirror. Tribune said it should at least be able to keep running both until the Commission decides whether to keep the rules.

The filings indicate media critics and broadcasters remain at loggerheads over how much which Internet competition threatens industry and whether to change the rules at all. Online media are no substitute for broadcasters, said unions and activists. Much popular online video is from broadcast networks, said a coalition led by the United Church of Christ. Not enough people have access to online media for it to substitute for over-the-air TV, the group said: “Industry emphasis on the availability of broadband Internet, as well as other new media tools such as iPods and cell phones, ignores the reality that lower-income Americans have inadequate access to these technologies.” But NAB, which mentioned the Internet on nearly every page of its 103-page filing, said: “The evidence of the growing use of the Internet for news and information has continued to accumulate even since the opening comments were filed in October.”

Online media are luring younger viewers, and with them ad sales, from TV stations by introducing local news features long the domain of broadcasters, NAB said: “44% of adults 18-29 -- one of the most coveted age brackets for advertisers -- with broadband access use the Internet as their primary source of science news.” Less than 1/3 of that segment call TV their main news source, NAB said, citing a Nov. 20 Pew study. - Jonathan Make, Josh Wein