ACA: Time For Broadcasters To Join Retransmission Revamp Effort

The American Cable Association took aim at Northwest Broadcasting's good faith bargaining complaint at the Federal Communications Commission, saying that was evidence that the retransmission consent regime was not working as well as the National Association of Broadcasters argues. Northwest filed the complaint against DirecTV and asked the FCC to compel the satellite operators to produce evidence that its asking price was market-based. “It is without doubt that the TV stations that filed the FCC complaint against DirecTV discarded the National Association of Broadcasters’ talking points about how retransmission consent is working perfectly and change is out of the question," said ACA president Matt Polka in a statement.

ACA, along with DirecTV, is a member of the American Television Alliance, which has been the cable industry's lead voice calling for reforming the retransmission consent regime, an effort NAB and TVFreedom, its point group on the issue, have been resisting, arguing that the regime works fine and results mostly in deals rather than impasses like the one between DirecTV and Northwest over prices.