ACA Renews Call for Retrans Reform

The American Cable Association is using a newly-released retransmission consent study by SNL Kagan to renew its call for retrans reform.

Kagan last week projected that retrans fees--the fees cable operators pay some TV station owners to carry their signals--will jump to $1.2 billion by 2011.

ACA issued its own study several weeks back about the disproportionate hit smaller operators are taking from what it says are excessive retrans fee hikes and broadcasters say are fair value for valuable programming.

ACA submitted the study in comments to the FCC on the state of competition.

"Congress must fix a broken retransmission consent process by preventing broadcasters from unjustifiably discriminating against consumers served by cable operators with a small number of subscribers in a local TV market," said ACA president Matthew Polka.

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.