Representatives Request Quiet Period Data

Reps Nathan Deal (R-GA) and Anna Eshoo (D-CA) have called on the National Telecommunications & Information Administration and Federal Communications Commission to support a "meaningful" retransmission consent quiet period and are asking for some data from the NTIA they think may support their position. The FCC, not NTIA, is currently considering the formal petition by cable operators for a quiet period, but NTIA recently recorded an uptick in DTV-to-analog converter box coupon requests in markets affected by retransmission consent disputes between LIN TV and Time Warner and Brighthouse. The legislators say they are concerned that those requests could have come from confused viewers who "very likely would not have applied for coupons but for the fact that LIN TV's broadcast signals were dropped."