Vote 'YES' on S. 2008 

January 4, 2012

U.S. Senate
Washington, DC  20510

Dear Senator,

On behalf of the more than one million members and supporters of the Council for Citizens Against Government Waste (CCAGW), I urge you to support S. 2008, the Next Generation Television Markeplace Act of 2011, sponsored by Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.). This legislation will repeal outdated regulatory schemes such as must-carry, retransmission consent, media ownership restrictions, and the compulsory copyright, bringing the regulatory structure into the twenty-first century to reflect the current competitive marketplace.

In 1992, Congress amended the Communications Act of 1934 to give broadcasters the upper hand in negotiations with monopoly cable providers, granting broadcasters the right to choose between guaranteed carriage or insisting that multichannel video programming distributors (MVPD) obtain and pay for a station's consent to retransmit the station's signal to local subscribers. The law allows broadcasters to make a new election between these two options every three years.

While broadcasters no longer deal with a cable monopoly -- they can now choose among multiple providers ranging from cable to satellite to new fiber optic networks -- MVPDs are prohibited by law from negotiating with any other broadcaster for the same content. Under the current network non-duplication rule, cable companies are restricted to dealing with a single local station, despite the fact that other external markets might carry the same programming and are willing to negotiate a lower price. Meanwhile, millions of consumers have fallen victim to tense negotiations between broadcasters and MVPDs, as broadcasters have used their upper hand to "hold hostage" must-see TV in an effort to force MVPDs to pay exorbitant fees or carry extra channels on their basic tiers. As a result, consumers not only sometimes experience a programming "blackout" until a deal has been reached, but also see an increase in their bill as broadcasters' ransoms are pass off in the form of higher rates.

S. 2008 would repeal provisions which require MVPDs to set aside portions of their channel capacity for mandatory carriage of local commercial broadcast stations, and direct the Federal Communications Commission to repeal network non-duplication, along with other burdensome regulations, including syndicated exclusivity and sports blackout rules. The legislation will repeal media ownership caps, which limit the number of broadcast stations a single company can own in a given media market, and lift the ban on broadcasters owning a newspaper in the same market. Additionally, the bill will repeal the compulsory copyright license, in which the government dictates the royalties MVPDs pay to broadcasters for their content, instead of allowing these royalties to be determined by a free market.

The old television regulatory structure inhibits the free market, reduces competition by undercutting smaller providers' ability to compete on price, increases costs for consumers, and frustrates millions of Americans by shutting off popular programming at peak viewing periods. I strongly urge you to support the Next Generation Television Marketplace Act, a reform plan that will remove the regulatory interventions that impede a free market. All votes on S. 2008 will be among those considered in CCAGW's 2012 Congressional Ratings.

Sincerely,

Thomas Schatz,
President