Sen McCaskill Pushes Chairman Pai for Action on Cable Contracts

Veteran cable critic Sen Claire McCaskill (D-MO)—ranking member of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations—wants Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai to limit "overly restrictive" alternative delivery method (ADM) and unconditional most-favored-nation clauses in programming contracts. The FCC, over Pai's objection, proposed to do just that in a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) last September stemming from an inquiry in 2016 into program diversity.

In a letter, Sen McCaskill said in the committee's investigation into programming practices—based on documents from "many of the largest cable and satellite providers" and interviews with distributors and networks—she concluded that the clauses may be limiting consumer choice and said based on that investigation, limiting them "will succeed in removing these obstacles and facilitate competition in an industry increasingly dominated by a few large companies.