NAB's Turn In Retrans Battle

The National Association of Broadcasters fired back at Time Warner Cable Wednesday in their "who said what" battle over retransmission consent.

After TWC accused NAB Hill witness Gerry Waldron of misleading a House Judiciary Committee subcommittee (TWC sent a letter to leadership of that committee), NAB sent its own letter to those legislators Sept. 18, saying TWC had made erroneous accusations.

NAB pointed to various news stories to indicate that Waldron's invocation of digital rights as important in the CBS/TWC retrans dispute was clearly not incorrect.

NAB also said TWC's claim that the cable operator had no power to impose restrictions on CBS dealings with its competitors was contradicted by its own public statements, including by TWC CEO Glenn Britt that some of TWC's contracts bar media outlets from providing content to online pay services.

"We urge you to reject the disinformation campaign of Time Warner Cable," NAB said.

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.