Network-affiliated TV stations are again pushing the Federal Communications Commission to bring some over-the-top video providers under the retransmission consent regime so they will have to negotiate directly with TV stations for carriage.
That push came in comments to the FCC on the agency s latest quadrennial review of media ownership regulation.
They tried to get the FCC back in 2020, under former chairman Ajit Pai, to revive the proceeding, also citing the rise of OTT, but to no avail. The idea was originally proposed by then-FCC chairman Tom Wheeler, a Democrat, in 2014.
In asking the FCC to retain the rule against common ownership of two or more of the major national TV networks, the affiliate associations of the Big Four ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox said that it was necessary in part to keep the networks from exercising even more power over affiliation agreements.
Citing those networks launch of OTT direct-to-consumer platforms including Paramount Plus, NBCUniversal s Peacock and Disney Plus, the affiliates said the balance of power continues to shift to the networks.
With every expansion of the networks' reach within the video programming universe, and every platform geared toward direct distribution of their programming to viewers without a role for local affiliates, the power of the national networks grows, while affiliates leverage vis- -vis their network partners' diminishes in tandem, they told the commission.
That power would grow even greater, they said, if networks were allowed to consolidate before negotiating affiliation agreements.
One way to try and tilt the balance back toward local stations, the affiliates suggested, would be for the FCC to follow through on its 2014 proceeding considering whether internet-based distribution should be classified as a multichannel video programming distributor (MVPD) for the purposes of retransmission consent negotiations between TV stations and national distributors.
They pointed out that in that proceeding, the FCC posited: The ability of networks to achieve online distribution of network programming in a local market, without the need for local affiliates to consent, may give networks some additional leverage in the network affiliate relationship that did not exist in the pre-online video world.
The affiliates said the FCC has proved prescient since OTT remains outside the retransmission consent regime and online video platforms are not required to negotiate directly with TV stations. Instead, the stations said, the Big Four have cut them out, negotiating with OTTs for their full network lineups and the associated affiliate signals, then presenting those deals to the stations on a take it or leave it basis.
In cutting local stations out of the negotiations for the distribution of their news
and other programming, the networks dictate the value of both subscription (retransmission) and advertising revenues for local stations' programming, the affiliates said.
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Network-affiliated TV stations are again pushing the Federal Communications Commission to bring some over-the-top video providers under the retransmission consent regime so they will have to negotiate directly with TV stations for carriage.
