Some will, no doubt, say that this shows Tom Wheeler to be in the pockets of
the MVPDs. Instead I see it as a natural step, in his continuing push to
increase competition in the TV content distribution marketplace. Using
technology now available to let this happen, as opposed to erecting artificial,
anti-competitive barriers (or allowing artificial barriers to remain in place).
The next step should be to eliminate the national caps on OTA station
ownership. Eliminate national caps, not local caps.
It's amazing to me how knee-jerk libertarians find it possible to label even
this move as FCC intrusion in the marketplace, just as they twisted the meaning
of a net neutrality mandate as "intrusion." Or perhaps, those I assume to be
knee-jerk libertarians are actually individuals in the TV business who were
benefitting from anti-competitive regulations?
Bert
-----------------------
https://www.fcc.gov/blog/upgrading-media-rules-better-serve-consumers-today-s-video-marketplace
Upgrading Media Rules to Better Serve Consumers in Today’s Video Marketplace
by: Tom Wheeler, FCC Chairman
August 12, 2015 - 11:54 AM
. . .
I am also putting forth an order that proposes elimination of outdated
“exclusivity rules.” These rules prevent an MVPD from providing subscribers an
out-of-market broadcast station, for example, when a retransmission consent
dispute results in a local station being dropped from carriage. In this item,
the Commission takes its thumb off the scales and leaves the scope of such
exclusivity to be decided by the parties, as we did in the Sports Blackout
Order last year. In so doing, the Commission would take 50-year old rules off
our books that have been rendered unnecessary by today’s marketplace.
. . .
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