The FCC should revise program access rules for buying groups, the...

The FCC should revise program access rules for buying groups, the American Cable Association told agency officials in a presentation. It was attended by ACA’s outside economist and an executive at the No. 1 U.S. co-op that negotiates carriage deals with programmers for multiple members. ACA and members have sought to enlarge such groups’ rights, commenting on a rulemaking notice on expanding some rules for pay-TV providers to get deals to show channels affiliated with cable operators (CD Jan 16 p7). The National Cable Television Cooperative satisfies none of the current commission buying group requirements, but does meet one proposed in the rulemaking, ACA’s presentation said. “The buying group agrees to assume liability to forward all payments due and received from its members for payment under a master agreement to the appropriate programmer.” Rules now “contravene the clear intent of Congress that buying groups should receive protection under program access rules,” said the presentation posted Wednesday in docket 12-68 (http://bit.ly/13oerNe). At the meeting with Chief Bill Lake and others in the Media Bureau and Office of Strategic Planning were ACA President Matt Polka, Northwestern University Professor of Economics William Rogerson and NCTC’s Jeff Nourse, senior vice president of legal & regulatory affairs.