House Commerce Committee Staffers: Time to Revisit Must-Carry/Retransmission Regulations

Republican staffers on the House Commerce Committee's Communications Subcommittee signaled in their memo on the June 27 Future of Video hearing that that future should be a deregulatory one, including that if Congress rethinks any regulations, they should be must-carry/retransmission and program access rules.

"The Communications Act is woefully out of step with the state of competition and technology in video distribution and programming," the staff write. That means, they argue, that retransmission consent deals between MVPDs and broadcasters and program carriage deals between MVPDs and programmers "are best left arranged by the respective parties and their viewers, free from regulatory intervention." That would be good news for broadcasters not looking for the government to step in and mandate carriage or arbitration during impasses. "Both sides should be able to withhold valuable assets," the staffers say, otherwise no "true negotiation can take place." The alternative, they say, is the "risky" proposition of asking regulators to weigh the relative value of programming and carriage.