Broadcasters Go on Retrans Offensive Aug 16, 2010
By Katy Bachman MediaWeek.com http://www.mediaweek.com/mw/content_display/news/local-broadcast/e3i4a25a9f106904fc1565821a34f7fabc0 The National Association of Broadcasters Monday (Aug. 16) stepped up its offense in the battle to keep the current retransmission consent rules as pay-TV providers put the press on Congress and the Federal Communications Commission to alter them. In a new Web site, www.keepmytv.org, the NAB spells out what options consumers have if their pay TV provider no longer carried a broadcast channel. The site also promotes the importance of broadcast TV in providing 98.5 percent of highest-rated programs, along with local news and emergency information. Since the 1992 Cable Act, pay TV providers must negotiate with local TV stations in order to carry the station's signal. Though most of the time negotiations between broadcasters and cable take place without incident, there have been a few high profile negotiations that have gone down to the wire. In those cases, it comes down to the same debate. Broadcasters want what they call fair compensation for the audience they bring to the cable system while cable systems complain the increased cost will be passed on to the consumer. With the formation of the American Television Alliance in July, the debate has headed to the halls of Congress and the Federal Communications. The ATA's 31 members have taken out ads and lobbied for changes such as preventing stations from pulling signals during negotiations. One of the ATA members, Time Warner Cable, is in high-profile negotiations for a new retransmission agreement with Disney. The current contract between the two expires at the end of this month. Meanwhile, Comcast, which is not part of the ATA and is in the process of trying to obtain regulatory approval for its 51 percent acquisition of NBC Universal, quietly cut a new 10-year retransmission deal with CBS, more than a year before the current deal was set to expire. -- ================================ George Antunes, Political Science Dept University of Houston; Houston, TX 77204 Voice: 713-743-3923 Fax: 713-743-3927 Mail: antunes at uh dot edu _______________________________________________ Medianews mailing list [email protected] http://lists.etskywarn.net/mailman/listinfo/medianews
