NCTA: FCC's Program Carriage Rule Changes Are Unwarranted

The National Cable & Telecommunications Association told the Federal Communications Commission that there is no need to try and make it easier to file program carriage complaints because there is no real harm that demands the intrusion of government on protected speech or the expansion of rules.

"The commission's proposals to encourage and facilitate the filing of more complaints and to expand the scope of the discrimination provisions of the rules are wholly unwarranted and at odds with the statute," said NCTA in comments on the FCC's proposed changes to the rules. NCTA calls the FCC's expansion of discovery rights "fishing expeditions" that could yield useful competitive information but would be unlikely to lead to more meritorious complaints. It also takes issue with the proposal of authorizing damages, which NCTA says could give programmers undue leverage in negotiations and lead to operators giving "unwarranted" preferential treatment to some networks to settle or avoid bogus claims.