Moonves Pitches FCC's Wheeler On Maintaining Retransmission Regime

On the eve of the White House Correspondents' Association Dinner in Washington, CBS president and CEO Les Moonves stopped by the Federal Communications Commission to meet with Chairman Tom Wheeler about a variety of issues, including why the FCC should not tinker with retransmission.

According to an ex parte notice submitted by CBS lawyers, Moonves, who has led CBS' aggressive charge to charge cable operators for its high-value content, urged the chairman to "maintain the current regime." He argued that the retransmission second revenue stream was critical to CBS' ability to continue to produce sports and entertainment and news.

Chairman Wheeler has tied his retransmission reform efforts, which include disallowing some coordinated negotiations and asking whether syndicated exclusivity and network nonduplication rules should be eliminated, to the size of consumer's cable bills. But Moonves said that given the size of its audience, CBS stations and affiliates "deserve the highest fees they can negotiate in the marketplace."