D.C. Memo: altafiber Floats FCC Social Contract – TV Station Mergers Tied to Lower Retrans Fees

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Retrans: altafiber, a Cincinnati-based provider of voice, video and broadband Internet, is floating a detailed plan designed to allow TV station owners to grow locally and nationally without the FCC having to adopt new rules or fearing much in the way of judicial scrutiny. Under the plan laid out to FCC staff on June 5 by Ted Heckmann, altafiber’s Vice President of Regulatory and Government Affairs, TV station mergers that would ordinarily violate an FCC rule (such as the one Big Four TV station to a market limit or the 39% national ownership cap) could expect to obtain an FCC waiver almost automatically. But here’s the catch: The acquiring stations would need to cut their retransmission consent fees by half, phased-in over three years. MVPDs benefiting from the reductions would need to pass them through to their pay-TV customers. “Lessening broadcast ownership restrictions without compensatory measures will hurt consumers. If the [FCC] lessens ownership restrictions, it must establish a framework to manage the resulting imbalance in negotiating leverage with respect to retransmission consent,” altafiber said in an FCC filing Friday. Heckmann, along with a colleague and veteran cable attorney Eric Breisach, described the approach as a “social contract” in a meeting with top aides to FCC Chairman Brendan Carr and a virtual meeting with a top aide to FCC Commissioner Anna Gomez. (More after paywall, plus PDF of altafiber’s plan.)