The FCC should update program access rules so...
The FCC should update program access rules so they provide protections to the buying group National Cable Television Cooperative, the American Cable Association told aides to Chairman Tom Wheeler and Commissioner Mike O'Rielly in meetings last week, according to an…
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ex parte filing Tuesday (http://bit.ly/1kz0FDg). Though Congress intended that program access rules apply to buying groups used by multichannel video programming distributors (MVPDs), the rules don’t apply to NCTC, ACA said. NCTC is the buying group “through which nearly all MVPDs that currently use a buying group license most of their national cable programming,” said ACA. “In practice,” the rules don’t apply to NCTC because the FCC definition of a buying group requires such organizations to agree to be liable for members’ deals with content companies, which NCTC doesn’t do, ACA has said. The commission should “update the relevant rules so program access protections account for and extend to the longstanding business model of the NCTC -- a business model that has near universal acceptance among programmers,” ACA said.