NAB To FCC: Don't Mandate Quiet Period

The Federal Communications Commission shouldn't use the digital television transition next February to justify interfering in upcoming carriage negotiations between local TV stations and pay TV distributors, according to the National Association of Broadcasters. The NAB is fighting a cable industry proposal that would prevent local TV stations from pulling their signals from Dec. 31, 2008 to May 31, 2009 as a way of ensuring that carriage disputes don't interfere with the cutoff of analog TV signals on Feb. 17, 2009. "There is no chance that consumers will confuse a retransmission consent dispute that began in December or January with some kind of equipment failure or other snafu connected to the DTV transition in February," said Marsha MacBride, NAB's executive vice president of legal and regulatory affairs, in a Sept. 8 letter filed with the FCC. MacBride added that the FCC didn't have legal authority to stop TV stations from withholding signals from a cable or satellite TV company, regardless of the unique circumstances surrounding the DTV transition. "Regulatory interference in such negotiations was never contemplated by Congress, and is contrary to congressional intent," MacBride said.