National Taxpayers Union Seeks Broad Retransmission Reform

The National Taxpayers Union (NTU) has advised the Senate Communications Subcommittee not to focus on "rearranging the regulatory deck chairs" in its hearing this week on retransmission consent, but instead to look at more comprehensive reform.

Rather than put the Federal Communications Commission's thumb more heavily on the scale, the group argued in a release Nov. 12, Congress should look at creating a system that "allows both television service providers and content providers to operate in a truly free and open negotiation environment." Rearranging the deck chairs is a reference to suggestions by some cable operators and Subcommittee Chairman John Kerry (D-MA) that the FCC get involved in arbitration, either itself or by mandating outside arbitration, and impose standstill agreements that prevent TV station signals from being pulled from cable systems.