Broadcasters have asked the FCC for more time to weigh in on a petition to the commission to revise its retransmission consent rules.
In a filing with the FCC last week, the National Association of Broadcasters asked the FCC for a 30-day extension for comments--from April 19 to May 18--and reply comments from May 4 to June 3.
Time Warner led a group of cable and satellite operators and others calling on the FCC to require independent arbitration during retrans disputes, interim carriage during that arbitration and to unbundle cable network from broadcast TV station carriage negotiations.
That call came ealier this month, with the FCC responding swiftly by putting out the request for comment less only a few days later.
In asking for the extension of time to replay, NAB argued that it and others could use the time to develop a "more robust record," and pointed to the other FCC proceedings with "coinciding timelines," including a comment deadline on the future of the media and a workshop on Apr. 20 in Tampa on the FCC's broadcast ownership rule review, not to mention, although they did, the NAB annual convention that starts next week. "Parties interested in responding to the petition who also are involved in the NAB Show would lose a significant amount of preparation time and would have only two business days after the show ends to finalize and file their comments in response to the public notice," NAB said.
