FCC inaction and broadcast consolidation are exacerbating “skyrocketing”...
FCC inaction and broadcast consolidation are exacerbating “skyrocketing” retransmission rates, said Mediacom in an ex parte letter addressed to Chairman Tom Wheeler’s chief of staff, Ruth Milkman. “Neither the consolidation that is occurring in local television markets nor the increasing…
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demands for retransmission consent compensation are benefitting the public,” said Mediacom. “Rather, they are benefitting the bottom line of the stations’ corporate parents,” said the filing. Rising retransmission consent fees are driving the increased consolidation by giving broadcasters an incentive to acquire stations they can then leverage against cable companies in retrans negotiations, said Mediacom. Broadcasters can finance station acquisitions through the increased retransmission consent revenue such transactions generate, said Mediacom: “The result is an ongoing cycle of station acquisitions, increased retransmission consent fees, and reductions in local content -- all to the detriment of consumers.” Broadcast consolidation is also a threat to the incentive auction, because it concentrates the available spectrum in the hands of just a few owners, the filing said. The FCC should require the parties in broadcast transactions to produce hard data showing that “the proposed transaction will provide measurable benefits to the public, not just to the parties’ bottom lines,” said the filing. “If the Commission under Chairman Wheeler does nothing else, it should stop accepting at face value the broadcasters’ claims that increased concentration of station ownership and/or control, both at the local level and nationally, is good for consumers and society as a whole,” said the filing.