An FCC draft order that would make TV...
An FCC draft order that would make TV joint sales agreements attributable has cost the U.S. broadcast-TV industry “many millions of dollars of investment” and will lead to job losses, NAB President Gordon Smith told FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler in…
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a letter Tuesday (http://bit.ly/1dt9duI) that referenced a Friday meeting between the two. “I have no doubt that you didn’t intend curtailed investment and fewer American jobs to be the practical effect of the proposed rules,” Smith said. He focused on the draft order’s effect on existing joint service agreements, which the order would require to be unwound within two years. Businesses should be able to trust FCC decisions on deals that the agency has already approved, Smith said. “Why would anyone invest in a regulated entity if they knew that the rules could change mid-stream and new rules would be applied retroactively?” Instead, the FCC should take up an NAB-suggested plan for JSAs that would apply stricter standards to the degree of sharing allowed in such agreements (CD March 21 p1), and attribute only those that didn’t meet those standards, Smith said. “This way forward will give investors confidence that the commission will not be a 1970s style heavy handed regulator, but one that responds to market forces and seeks to encourage broadcasters."