U.S. Platforms Petition FCC Over Retransmission Consent Disputes

WASHINGTON, D.C.: On the heels of the spat between Cablevision and ABC over the weekend, a number of U.S. pay-TV providers, including Time Warner Cable and DIRECTV, have filed a petition with the FCC calling for a new set of rules governing retransmission consent disputes.

ABC was briefly pulled from Cablevision over the weekend as the two parties were unable to come to a settlement on how much the cable platform should pay for the right to carry the network. Coverage was subsequently restored on Sunday night, soon after the Academy Awards broadcast began. Earlier this year, Time Warner Cable averted a blackout of the FOX network in a similar dispute.

The coalition that has petitioned the FCC includes the American Cable Association, Bright House Networks, Cablevision, Charter Communications, DIRECTV, DISH Network, Insight Communications, Mediacom Communications, New America Foundation, Organization for the Promotion and Advancement of Small Telecommunications Companies, Public Knowledge, Suddenlink Communications, Time Warner Cable and Verizon, reaching a total of 67 million video subscribers. The filing, according to a statement from Time Warner Cable, presents a case that the FCC’s regulations for governing retransmission consent "are outdated and are harming consumers and driving up prices."

The Time Warner Cable statement notes that it is consumers that are being caught in the middle of these disputes, with "recurring threats of going dark, high-stakes public negotiations, and, in the case of ABC’s recent withdrawal of programming from three million Cablevision subscribers, highly disruptive blackouts." The petitioners have asked the FCC to implement new dispute resolution mechanisms, including compulsory arbitration or an expert tribunal, and require continued carriage of broadcast signals during negotiations or disputes.