Bloomberg Praises FCC's Revisions to Program Carriage Rules

Bloomberg is giving the Federal Communications Commission props for its proposals to revise program carriage rules to speed complaint resolution, adopt baseball-style arbitration for impasses, and institute standstills for renewals and monetary "true ups" for instances of noncarriage.

Bloomberg said that the complaint process is fundamentally broken, saying that no independent programmer has ever achieved favorable commission decision in carriage complaint proceeding. Bloomberg argues that in the 20 years since Congress passed the 1992 Cable Act, two things are clear: 1) the potential for abuse has grown and the market has become more concentrated and 2) there is consensus that the existing process has not protected independent programmers or the public.