Must-carry

The Federal Communications Commission will undertake a review of the retransmission consent rule amid the growing contentiousness between broadcasters and cable operators on carriage agreements, FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski said...

Retransmission consent has re-entered the public consciousness in a big way in the past few months. While most programmers believe the system is fair, distributors have their own solutions to end the stalemates.

Once a sector in so-called "secular and cyclical decline," broadcast networks are suddenly as welcome on Wall Street as the first crocuses of spring.

At the Senate Commerce Committee hearing on the proposed Comcast-NBC Universal merger, Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski indicated that the FCC has been actively considering the retransmission consent framework.

Many of the country's biggest television providers have signed on to a petition asking the government to revamp station retransmission rules. Cablevision, Charter, DirecTV, Dish Network, Time Warner Cable and Verizon all joined the coalition of providers and nonprofit groups in signing the petition on Tuesday. But the nation's biggest cable company, Comcast, was missing.

CBS chief executive Leslie Moonves has put advertisers and local affiliates on notice: both will soon be paying more.

Broadcasters have countered the cable and satellite operators' letter to House and Senate Commerce Committees with one of their own.

After reaching out to the Federal Communications Commission, the cable industry is now asking Congress for help with retransmission disputes.

Public Knowledge is one of 14 parties asking the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to consider changing the rules governing the terms and conditions under which broadcast stations are carried on cable networks.

The retransmission war is heating up in Washington. A group of major cable operators, satellite TV providers DirecTV and Dish Network, and Verizon filed a petition Tuesday with the Federal Communications Commission urging a review and changes to the law that governs negotiations between broadcast TV station owners and cable, satellite and telco operators for carriage of local stations.