Free State Panelists Free to Hammer Retransmission

Cable and satellite operators, an activist, an academic, and a former Federal Communications Commission official took turns taking aim at the must-carry retransmission consent regime at a Free State Foundation forum in Washington -- there was no broadcaster on the panel.

The general thrust of the attacks was that the rules were monopoly based rules tailored to a market that doesn't exist. Gigi Sohn, president of Public Knowledge, said, "Consumers are held hostage by retrans fights and blackouts.” She also said that while getting rid of the regulations was preferable, alternatively the FCC should keep stations on during retransmission disputes and mandate outside arbitration, the latter which she said the FCC has the authority to do, although the commission has said it doesn't. Sohn thinks the FCC is reading that authority too narrowly. She called syndicated exclusivity, distant-signal protections and sports blackout rules decades-old regulatory nonsense that kept viewers from watching the TV stations they want to watch. Sohn suggested there was some talk in Congress about introducing legislation clarifying that the FCC has the authority to mandate arbitration.