DirecTV is pushing back on the Federal Communications Commission’s new “all-in pricing” rules, claiming the agency’s new mandates are built on a faulty interpretation of Section 335 of the Communications Act and that the regulator doesn't have the authority to enforce them.
In a letter sent to the FCC last week, DirecTV said the agency’s interpretation of Section 335 is too broad — it gives the FCC the latitude to regulate “direct broadcast satellite services” for “the adoption of programing and carriage-related obligations,” such as educational shows. But it doesn't give the FCC the right to impose rules for “any regulation” that it deems to be “in the public interest.”
“Even if we agreed with the all-in pricing order’s Section 335 reasoning (which we do not), that reasoning suggests that the Commission lacks authority to impose [the order],” DirecTV outside counsel Timothy Simeone wrote.
“In response to the argument that Section 335(b)(3) confers authority over prices, terms, and conditions only in connection with educational channel capacity, the all-in pricing order states that an all-in pricing mandate is not a regulation of prices, terms, or conditions,” Simeone added. “The Commission thus appeared to acknowledge that it would be impermissible to regulate prices, terms, or conditions of service outside of educational channel capacity.”
Last month, FCC commissioners voted 3-2 across party lines in favor of the all-in pricing order, which requires cable and satellite TV companies to “specify the ‘all-in’ price clearly and prominently for video programming service in their promotional materials and on subscribers’ bills.”
The FCC specified that line items tied to “broadcast retransmission consent, regional sports programming, and other programming-related fees” fit into the bucket of charges regulated by the new order. The FCC broadly refers to these charges as “junk fees.“
