ACA: Repair Program Access Before Redefining OVDs

American Cable Association president Matthew Polka grabbed some face time with FCC chairman Tom Wheeler at the COMPTEl show in Dallas last week to talk about closing a "loophole" in the program access rules before trying to extend those rules to over-the-top providers.  

Polka was responding to the news, first reported by Multichannel News/B&C that the FCC is working on a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking that would propose defining linear OVD's as multichannel video providers.  

But Polka argued that before the FCC takes on that big issue, it extend program access protections to the National Cable Television Cooperative, which negotiates programming deals for more than 900 small and medium-sized MVPD's--ACA represents those smaller operators. 

To read the full story, visit Multichannel.com.

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.