NCTA To Senate: STELA Can Be Used For Retransmission, Video Market Changes

The National Cable and Telecommunications Association told the Senate that the Satellite Television Extension and Localism Act (STELA) is an appropriate venue for retransmission changes as well as "discrete" video reforms, but that those should not include applying multichannel video programming distributor (MVPD) regulations to over-the-top.

In response to the Senate Commerce Committee request for input on STELA reauthorization, NCTA said that another five-year renewal was about right, but with a more technologically-neutral approach that treats functionally equivalent services alike.

"Congress should examine the Act broadly, to ensure that the law does not confer any regulatory advantage or disadvantage based on the use of any particular technology," NCTA told the committee. The association said that Congress should not extend "existing competitive protections for the traditional video marketplace [the committee's wording] to online video providers."

The FCC is currently considering whether to extend program carriage, access and other protections to over-the-top providers. But NCTA argues the online video space is already competitive and flourishing. "There is no need to extend any provisions of the 1992 Act to online video distributors," it said, but added that if the Congress did extent protections, it must also extend the "commensurate obligations of that Act."