Broadcasting&Cable

The Senate Commerce Committee Republicans tweeted a link from a video promoting/explaining the Local Choice proposal of Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller (D- WV) and ranking member Sen John Thune (R- SD).

That proposal, which they want to include as part of satellite license reauthorization legislation being teed up for September, would allow multichannel video programming distributor subscribers to choose whether they want to pay for stations who elect payment for retransmission consent. That also means the cable operators would not be required to deliver all retransmission stations on the basic tier, since they would not have to deliver them at all to viewers who opted not to pay for them.

The Consumer Federation of America, a strong critic of the proposed Comcast/Time Warner Cable merger, made it official, filing a petition to block the merger.

CFA says the deal would pose a "much greater" threat to consumers than the Comcast/NBCU merger, which CFA also opposed and the Federal Communications Commission approved. CFA asserts that the "inevitable" result of the deal will be higher prices, worse service and less innovation, says CFA research director Mark Cooper, a familiar face on Capitol Hill testifying against media mergers.

“The acquisition of Time Warner [Cable] would increase Comcast’s market power by at least 50% and create a goliath that would tower over the industry," he said.

The New York State Public Service Commission says it is "currently" not taking a position on whether the Federal Communications Commission should approve or block the Comcast/Time Warner Cable merger, but has a number of "potential concerns," including that the companies may be lowballing the potential of vertical and horizontal harms.

The NYPSC, which is conducting its own review of the deal's impact on the state, did say that the FCC should focus its review on vertical and horizontal market power issues, as well as bridging the digital divide and mitigating market power harms.

NYPSC is suggesting that the FCC require Comcast to offer a $50 per month service with download speeds of at least 10 Mbps, which the FCC has suggested could be its new baseline for high-speed broadband. NYPSC also suggests the FCC could beef up enforcement of conditions by allowing an arbitrator to award attorneys’ fees for successful complaints.

The Consumer Electronics Association is none too pleased with the National Association of Broadcasters' decision to sue the Federal Communications Commission over how the commission proposes to measure interference and station coverage areas for the broadcast incentive auction.

“It is discouraging to see the broadcast television industry reject the FCC’s carefully crafted compromises," said CEA President Gary Shapiro. "Litigating against the incentive auction undermines and delays innovation."

The Parents Television Council has written to MTV, asking the network not to have a repeat of the previous 2013 Video Music Awards, which came under fire for a performance from Robin Thicke and Miley Cryus that was deemed too explicit by some viewers.

In a letter addressed to Janet Borelli, senior VP of standards and practices at MTV Networks/Viacom Media Networks, PTC president Tim Winter asked MTV to “commit publicly that the program will not contain the type of explicit sexual content present in last year’s show.”

[Commentary] Senate Commerce Committee staffers are pitching what’s called the Local Choice plan for retransmission consent reform as “an evolution of the existing retransmission consent regime to a simpler approach, designed to put more power in the hands of the viewer.”

That sounds good, until we get to the line about controlling the cost of viewers’ pay-TV subscriptions. That’s when it sounds more like “retransmission consent trampling and eviscerating.”

Government-mandated à la carte is not the answer. The marketplace is already driving choice, taking the form of on-demand and over-the-top options.

A half-dozen Expanding Opportunities for Broadcasters Coalition members met with Federal Communications Commission staffers and came away impressed by the meetings and the prospects for a successful auction, according to an ex parte filing with the commission outlining the meeting, which focused on transparency.

"These meetings have further increased the confidence of our approximately 80 auction-eligible stations that the incentive auction will, in fact, present a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to monetize our spectrum and, if we wish, continue our television operations through channel sharing," said the filing.

Global advertising spending will rise 4.5% in 2014 and another 5% to $580 billion in 2015, according to a new forecast from media agency holding company GroupM.

The 2015 level of ad spending would exceed the previous pre-financial crisis and recession peak of 2007-2008 adjusted for inflation. In the US, GroupM sees spending rising in 2014 and 4.2% in 2015. TV spending is expected to rise 3% to $79.1 billion in 2014 and increase 4% to $81.9 billion in 2015.

Rentrak said it signed a multi-year agreement with the NBC Owned Television Stations to provide audience measurement and other data for three of its stations.

KNBC in Los Angeles, KXAS in Dallas-Ft. Worth and WTVJ in Miami will use Rentrak data, including single-source information about automotives and political advertising, to demonstrate the value of its inventory to reach customers.

Broadcasters represented by TVFreedom.org aren't liking what they see in the retransmission consent revamp floated by the leadership of the Senate Commerce Committee.

Committee chairman Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) and ranking member Sen John Thune (R-SD) wanted to leave broadcasters and cable operators something to think about before the committee comes up with its version of the bill renewing the Satellite Television Extension and Localism Act (STELA). That came in the form of a proposal to allow multichannel video programming distributors' subcribers to decide whether they want to pay the per-sub price for retransmission stations.

The proposal would essentially end retransmission negotiations between TV stations and cable ops, allowing viewers to decide which stations they wanted to have and pay for -- must carry stations would still have to be carried.