FCC wants to control cable costs

United States media caretaker the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) wants to control cable costs by putting limits on stations for negotiating re-transmission fees. 

FCC has adopted a Report and Order that it says would strengthen its rules governing retransmission consent negotiations. 

This order will help curtail a practice that has put upward pressure on cable and direct broadcast satellite programming costs as well as prices to consumers. 

The Order prohibits a television broadcast station ranked among the top four stations (as measured by audience share) from negotiating retransmission consent jointly with another top four stations if the stations are not commonly owned and serve the same geographic market. Joint negotiation by these stations leads to higher retransmission consent fees because the practice reduces competition between the stations. 

FCC commissioner Ajit Pai noted that after carefully reviewing the record and meeting with numerous parties to this proceeding, he concluded that good-faith retransmission-consent negotiations generally involve two parties: one multichannel video programming distributor (MVPD) and one broadcast company. Adding a third or fourth party to the mix raises troubling competitive concerns.

Source: http://cablequest.org/news/international-news/item/4522-fcc-wants-to-control-cable-costs.html
Source: http://cablequest.org/news/international-news/item/4522-fcc-wants-to-control-cable-costs.html