Draft Retrans NPRM Could Circulate This Week, With Element on Online Blackouts, Analyst Says
Chairman Tom Wheeler likely will begin circulating a retransmission consent NPRM this week, as the Sept. 4 deadline set by Congress to launch it looms, New Street Research analyst Jonathan Chaplin emailed investors. The 2014 Satellite Television Extension and Localism…
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Act Reauthorization Act, which became law Dec. 4, gave the FCC nine months to start a rulemaking "to review its totality of the circumstances test for good faith negotiations under clauses 12 (ii) and (iii) of section 325(b)(3)(C) of the Communications Act." An FCC spokesman Tuesday declined to comment on a time frame for an NPRM to be circulated but said the agency "will meet the statutory deadline." While the FCC has to begin the process by Sept. 4, "it did not set a date for completion," Chaplin said Monday, adding that if not tackled within the next 12 months, it may become an item for the next FCC to resolve. While Wheeler's draft likely will recommend dramatic changes in retrans rules, it probably will put limits on the broadcaster practice of requiring cable multichannel video programming distributors to guarantee that networks reach a certain percentage of customers -- a practice that has been criticized by a number of organizations and businesses already advocating for retrans consent rule changes (see 1508100030). The FCC also likely will look kindly on the idea of not allowing the blocking of Internet access to blocked programming during a retrans blackout when the programming is otherwise available, Chaplin said. The agency also might address the nonduplication rule and eliminate the requirement that MVPDs block duplicate carriage of the same program being carried on a nonlocal broadcast signal that is being imported, as that gives broadcasters "a regulatory, extra-contractual mechanism to exclude competing sources of network and syndicated programming on MVPD lineups," Chaplin said. All those changes would not "dramatically shift the leverage between broadcasters and MVPDs" while still giving some help to MVPDs, he said.