Willner: Get Rid of Must-Buy

WILLNER: GET RID OF MUST-BUY
[SOURCE: Multichannel News, AUTHOR: Ted Hearn]
A cable-operator executive Wednesday urged a group of House Republicans to eliminate a law that requires cable subscribers to buy their local TV signals before any cable networks, saying that the change would create regulatory parity with satellite-TV providers, according to a communications lobbyist familiar with the proposal. Insight Communications CEO Michael Willner pitched the idea of eliminating the "must-buy" basic-cable requirement in a private meeting on Capitol Hill ostensibly about retransmission consent -- the legal name given to private carriage negotiations between local broadcasters and cable or satellite TV providers. The meeting was called by House Commerce Committee chairman Joe Barton (R-Texas), who attended along with Reps. Nathan Deal (R-GA), Charles Bass (R-NH), Paul Gillmor (R-Ohio) and Fred Upton (R-Mich). Deal and Bass have been concerned that local TV stations have been abusing their bargaining power vis-Ã -vis cable in a manner that is increasing the size of expanded basic with unwanted programming and causing the price of the package to swell, both to the detriment of cable customers. TV stations claim that retransmission consent is functioning properly as a free-market carriage mechanism. Willner, according to the communications lobbyist, told the lawmakers that it was unfair to force cable subscribers to buy the broadcast-basic tier when satellite-TV subscribers do not face an identical burden.
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