State Broadcast Groups Diss 'Local Choice'

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published

All 50 state broadcast associations have banded together to ask the Senate Commerce Committee not to include the "Local Choice" proposal in must-pass satellite television compulsory license legislation.

"If adopted, the proposal will unjustifiably eliminate television broadcasting’s longstanding statutory right of retransmission consent and unfairly single out the free, over-the-air, local television broadcast industry for mandatory 'a la carte' treatment," they wrote in a letter to Sen. Commerce Chairman Jay Rockefeller (D- W. Va.) and ranking member John Thune (R-S.D.), who proposed Local Choice as a way to reduce cable bills and prevent retrans blackouts.

Read more at broadcastingcable.com.

John Eggerton
John Eggerton

Contributing editor John Eggerton has been an editor and/or writer on media regulation, legislation and policy for over four decades, including covering the FCC, FTC, Congress, the major media trade associations, and the federal courts. In addition to Multichannel News and Broadcasting + Cable, his work has appeared in Radio World, TV Technology, TV Fax, This Week in Consumer Electronics, Variety and the Encyclopedia Britannica.