Retransmission reform on a fast track?

[Commentary] The leaders of the Senate Commerce Committee may be looking for input from the industry on potential reforms to the retransmission consent rules, but their counterparts in the House of Representatives aren’t waiting to hear back.

According to reports from Capitol Hill, members of the House Communications and Technology Subcommittee were preparing to meet to discuss which of several reform proposals to include in a draft version of a bill to reauthorize the Satellite Television Extension and Localism Act (STELA), which is set to expire at the end of 2014. By moving first, the House could bring the issue to a head more quickly than the Senate’s approach contemplated. Reports of the move sent broadcast industry lobbyists into a frenzy of activity Monday to try to keep the reform provisions out of the STELA reauthorization bill -- perhaps the only piece of telecommunications legislation likely to be passed in the 2014 election year.

[Sweeting is Principle, Concurrent Media Strategies]