TV Affiliates Seek Local-Into-Local on DirecTV/U-verse Spinoff
AT&T and TPG Capital "simply cannot be trusted" to provide nondiscriminatory local TV service without an FCC order to provide full local service in all 210 designated market areas, ABC, CBS, Fox and NBC affiliates told the FCC International Bureau…
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Monday, renewing their push that approval of the DirecTV/U-verse spinoff be conditioned on providing local-into-local service in all 210 DMAs (see 2105040055). They responded to AT&T/TPG arguments that the cost is prohibitively high to provide local channels in the 12 markets where they aren't carried now, "due to a broken retransmission consent regime" and regulatory "loopholes" that let a broadcaster own multiple network affiliates in one market. AT&T and TPG said requiring local-into-local service would be unrelated to the transaction. The affiliates said the retrans argument is new, as AT&T and its DirecTV have always claimed in the past that the limitation was one of bandwidth. They said DirecTV has a pattern of "rais[ing] whatever excuse is convenient and in vogue at the time of the request."