Public Knowledge Calls For Washington to Weigh In on WABC/Cablevision Stand-Off; Kerry: Game Of Retrans Chicken Must End

Retransmission consent critic Public Knowledge is using the WABC/Cablevision stand-off in New York to renew its call for Washington to weigh in. "It's a shame consumers are once again caught in the middle of a dispute between cable companies and TV broadcasters over the terms of popular programming being carried on cable systems," said Gigi Sohn, president of the D.C.-based fair use advocacy group. In addition to mandatory interim carriage when negotiations break down and contracts expire, Sohn put in a plug for program unbundling, lifting restrictions on distant-signal importation, disclosure of contract terms and reasonable and non-discriminatory mandates for those contracts.

"This game of chicken being played again and again between cable companies and broadcasters with consumers in the crosshairs must come to an end," said Sen John Kerry (D-MA), chairman of the Senate Communications Subcommittee. In a letter to FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski March 3, Chairman Kerry says that the dispute appears to be more evidence that "the retransmission consent regime has become outdated in the 18 years since it was crafted."

Rep. Joe Barton (R-TX) told the FCC not to intervene in the dispute. "Actual discussion of the deal is best left between the respective companies and their viewers, free from government interference or cajoling," Barton said in his letter to the FCC. "The alternative is to ask the government to weigh the relative value of carriage and of particular programming. This is a risky proposition." He continued: "Service providers and programmers are closet to their viewers and in a better position than the government to weigh the costs and benefits of carriage deals, especially in as competitive and as complex a video marketplace as we have today. If either party dislikes the deal, either is free to walk away. And both have something to lose: viewers."