In the turnabout is fair play department, the American Cable Association has told the FCC that if it accepts a joint proposal by cable operators and broadcasters to allow TV stations to make their carriage elections by email rather than certified letter, it should do the same for requirements that cable operators send notices to TV stations by certified mail.
Those cable notices include repositioning or deletion of signals, changes in technical configurations, notices that a cable system is no longer exempt from the network nonduplication or syndicated exclusivity rules (once it has more than 1,000 subs).
Related: ACA Backs Allowing Broadcasters to Submit Carriage Elections by Email
"The Commission has continued to move in this direction by proposing to allow MVPDs to deliver all remaining subscriber notices electronically," ACA told the commission. "ACA’s proposal simply extends the benefits of electronic delivery even further, consistent with the Commission’s ongoing efforts to modernize regulatory communications."
ACA, NCTA-The Internet & Television Association and the National Association of Broadcasters in a meeting with FCC officials, told the Media Bureau they were in agreement that TV stations could send carriage election notices--whether they were electing must-carry or seeking retransmission consent fees--to an address posted in a cable operators online FCC public file or the FCC's COALS (Cable Operations and Licensing System) database.
