Cable operators team with Dish Network to press FCC on retransmission reform

Several small cable operators are teaming up with Time Warner Cable (NYSE: TWC) and Dish Network (Nasdaq: DISH) to press the FCC to reform its retransmission-consent rules.

The cable operators and Dish complain in a letter sent to the FCC Monday that media ownership rules give TV stations too much leverage in retransmission-consent negotiations with cable operators. Station groups owned by NBCU, Fox, ABC and broadcasters such as LIN TV have been pushing cable and satellite providers for increased fees to transmit their local signals to pay TV customers.

In the letter sent Monday from Dish, Time Warner Cable and the American Cable Association (ACA), the companies complain that consolidation of TV stations and agreements between separately owned stations in local markets hurts consumers, advertisers and pay TV providers.

"The outcome is often the same: layoffs of station staff, reduced journalistic independence, and diminished competition for audiences, advertisers and multichannel video programming distributors (MVPDs) that carry these stations through retransmission consent agreements," the companies wrote in the letter, which was also signed by Free Press and the National Association of Broadcast Employees and Technicians.

While Time Warner Cable and the ACA, which represents small and mid-sized cable companies, signed the letter, Comcast  (Nasdaq: CMCSA) is not joining the effort. The nation's largest cable MSO is now one of the biggest station group owners following its merger with NBCUniversal, and has said that it is banking on retransmission-consent revenue to grow profits.

The companies also complain that some TV stations are teaming up to negotiate retransmission-consent deals. "It is a prevalent practice, with at least 36 pairs of separately-owned Big Four affiliates stations in 33 markets, actually engaging in coordinated negotiations through use of a single bargaining representative," the companies wrote in the letter.

For more:
- see the FCC filing (PDF)

Related articles:
Scripps, Nexstar grow retransmission consent by more than 30%
LIN TV banks on retransmission consent fees to survive
Comcast's NBCUniversal eyes ‘hundreds of millions' in retransmission fees