FCC Makes Congress' STELAR Modifications

The Federal Communications Commission has officially modified its rules and deadlines to comply with the directives in the STELA Reauthorization Act of 2014 (STELAR), which include prohibiting coordinated retransmission negotiations among noncommonly owned, same-market stations. The FCC order extends the FCC's authority to enforce good-faith retransmission negotiations until Dec. 31, 2015, prohibits a TV station from preventing multichannel video programming distributors (pay-TV) from carrying significantly viewed signals, and eliminates the prohibition on MVPDs dropping TV station signals during sweeps periods. To allow MVPDs to import significantly viewed stations, the FCC added this new subsection to its retransmission rules: "[To] prohibit a television broadcast station from limiting the ability of a [MVPD] to carry into the local market of such station a television signal that has been deemed significantly viewed...or any television broadcast signal such distributor is authorized to carry, unless such stations are directly or indirectly under common de jure control permitted by the Commission."