Cable Seeks Channel Substitution in Retransmission

Broadcast TV’s competitors will urge Congress to revise the retransmission consent law to permit cable and satellite TV companies to use distant network signals during retransmission consent negotiations.

“Without immediate action by Congress ... it seems likely that millions more screens will go dark every year, and consumers will pay more and more for their cable and satellite service,” R. Stanton Dodge, general counsel of Dish Network, will testify during a hearing before a House Judiciary Committee subcommittee, according to an advance copy of his written testimony. But the National Association of Broadcasters will urge lawmakers to veto the pleas for relief. “A change in the law that would permit a satellite carrier to import a distant signal — not based on need, but to gain unfair market leverage in a retransmission consent dispute,” Gerard Waldron, a communications attorney who is testifying in NAB’s behalf, will say, according to the text of his written testimony for the hearing.