NAB to FCC: Cable Market Is Anything But Competitive

The National Association of Broadcasters told the Federal Communications Commission that far from being highly competitive, the multichannel video programming distributor (MVPD, or pay-TV) marketplace is highly consolidated at all levels and continues along that path at a brisk clip. That came in a reply comment filing on the state of video competition. The FCC is collecting input for its next annual report.

NAB pointed to the merger of AT&T and DirecTV and the proposed merger of Comcast, Time Warner Cable and Bright House and said given the recent "massive" consolidation, the FCC should take a hard look at competitive conditions rather than try to fix a retransmission system they say isn't broken. MVPDs have argued they have plenty of competition. NAB said the FCC has been ignoring consolidation at the recent and local levels -- by contrast, the FCC limits local market broadcast concentration. NAB also used some ripped from the headlines fodder, citing last week's announcement that Altice, the owner of Suddenlink Communications, had a deal to buy Cablevision, "resulting in the combination of the seventh and eighth largest MVPDs."