Trade Law Daily is a Warren News publication.

The FCC should create a new regulatory fee...

The FCC should create a new regulatory fee category for multichannel video programming distributors (MVPDs), said the American Cable Association in an ex parte filing Friday (http://bit.ly/1blRLWQ). That “would address the current inequity of cable and non-cable IPTV operators continuing…

Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article

Timely, relevant coverage of court proceedings and agency rulings involving tariffs, classification, valuation, origin and antidumping and countervailing duties. Each day, Trade Law Daily subscribers receive a daily headline email, in-depth PDF edition and access to all relevant documents via our trade law source document library and website.

to cross-subsidize these direct competitors in the video distribution market,” ACA said. The current regulatory fee system is unfair because small and mid-sized cable operators have to pay fees that their competitors in the direct-broadcast satellite industry don’t, ACA said. The commission should also offer fee relief for the smallest cable operators, ACA said. “Such reforms would not materially impact the revenue generated by the commission,” said the association. The cutoff for small operators should be set at 1,000 or fewer subscribers, ACA said. “Within the MVPD industry, these cable operators generate the lowest administrative burden for the Media Bureau among all cable operators."