Broadcasters Storm FCC Over Exclusivity Proposal

Broadcasters have been putting on a full court press at the Federal Communications Commission to try to dissuade the commissioners from following FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler's lead by eliminating broadcast exclusivity rules, according to the National Association of Broadcasters and FCC documents. Over the past week-plus since the FCC circulated the order eliminating the syndicated exclusivity and network nonduplication rules for a vote, NAB says more than 60 broadcasters from 22 states have met more than a dozen times with commissioner, advisors, and Media Bureau staffers to argue against elimination.

NAB, which organized the fly-ins, said three key takeaways from the meetings were: "an emphasis on the importance of these rules to localism; concern from small market broadcasters that exclusivity rules are critical to their survival; the difficulty of handling exclusivity through contract and litigation if the FCC were to eliminate the rules because of 'privity of contract' issues (meaning the local station would have a tough time suing the right party to stop importation of duplicative programming)."