Cablevision Makes Its Case for Retransmission

In comments filed at the Federal Communications Commission, Cablevision laid out its three keys to retransmission consent reform:

1. Prevent the tying of TV station carriage with co-owned cable nets. It argues that the practice has raised consumer prices by bundling must-have programming with "limited interest" offerings.
2. Require broadcasters to publicize their price for TV station carriage.
3. Prevent "discrimination" in price based on the size of an operator or satellite provider.

It also wants the FCC prevent stations not jointly owned from jointly negotiation retrans, eliminate the syndicated exclusivity and network nonduplication rules -- the FCC proposed eliminating those rules in its Notice of Proposed Rulemaking; and not to increase viewer notification requirements, which it says would "encourage broadcaster brinkmanship, confuse consumers, cause MVPDs to be more vulnerable to unreasonable retransmission consent demands, and so result in higher rates for MVPD subscribers."