Rep Bass Asks FCC to Complete Retransmission Proceeding

Rep. Charles Bass (R-NH) has written the Federal Communications Commission asking it to act on its open retransmission consent reform proceeding in time to impact upcoming retransmission negotiations.

The FCC voted unanimously last March to issue a notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) to clarify what constitutes good faith bargaining and potentially take some other steps, including proposing eliminating the syndicated exclusivity and non-duplication in the event of retransmission impasses to give cable operators an alternative source of station programming. But it has yet to act on its proposals. With a boatload of retransmission deals up by the end of this year, Bass "encouraged" FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski in a letter dated Oct. 21 to complete the proceeding in time for the decision "to inform this year's retransmission consent negotiations," a point he made twice in the letter using almost identical language. That is something the American Cable Association, which represents small and midsized providers, has been urging as well. Bass said that he has heard from a number of his state's smaller pay TV providers that "increasingly frequent negotiation breakdowns and rising retransmission consent fees result in both significant inconvenience and cost to consumers."