Chairman Upton: Retrans Regime Should Not Favor Either Party

House Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton (R-MI) said that neither Congress nor the Federal Communications Commission should be getting in the middle of retransmission consent negotiations.

"As we look at retransmission consent, I think we shouldn't have legislation mandating carriage arrangements...There are very few cases where we haven't seen an agreement between the parties." Until he saw otherwise, he said, the private sector should be allowed to work it out itself. That line drew strong applause from the broadcasters Upton was speaking to at the National Association of Broadcasters' State Leadership Conference. He suggested that part of that free market equation that drives the vast majority of deals without signal pulling is big ticket sporting events like March Madness or the World Series; those prompt viewers to put pressure on all parties to do a deal before the contracts expire.