Republicans Have Voted for Effective Competition Item
Both Republican FCC commissioners have already cast votes in favor of a draft order making effective competition a rebuttable presumption nationwide, while eighth-floor Democratic offices have yet to throw their support behind the item, FCC officials told us Monday. Commissioners Mignon Clyburn and Jessica Rosenworcel are seen as having concerns about the draft item in its current form, industry and FCC officials told us.
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The item is still expected to be approved Tuesday, the day of the Satellite Television Extension and Localism Act Reauthorization-mandated deadline for effective competition relief for small cable systems, FCC and industry officials on both sides of the issue told us.
Chairman Wheeler is likely to want a 5-0 vote on the item, industry officials told us, but they expect the item to be approved in some form Tuesday, with or without the support of the Democrats. A delay on the item is unlikely, an industry official told us. Though missing the statutory deadline to make the effective competition rule change isn’t likely to lead to huge consequences, the commission won’t want to stretch the rulemaking beyond June 2, an industry official said. NAB and numerous public interest groups have suggested that the best way to meet the deadline is to approve the smaller-in-scope version of the rules required by STELAR, which would change effective competition only for small cable systems. The FCC had no comment.
Both sides of the issue have continued to push right up to the deadline. The American Cable Association met with eighth-floor officials Thursday to discuss the benefits of the proposed rule change to consumers. Meanwhile, the NBC and CBS affiliate organizations and Univision also visited the eighth floor last week. Reversing the effective competition presumption would lead to increased cable rates across the country, the NBC Television Affiliates and the CBS Television Network Affiliates Association said, according to an ex parte filing. Hispanics will be disproportionately harmed if the rule change causes broadcasting to be moved off the basic tier, Univision said. “Univision's viewers were especially vulnerable to being forced to pay more to get an additional tier if [multichannel video programming distributors] MVPDs had the latitude of taking this vital programming out of the basic tier package,” Univision said. Cable industry officials have told us that copyright rules and market forces make it difficult for cable carriers to stop carrying broadcast stations on the basic tier, even without rate regulation. The FCC would not be “adhering to the will of Congress” by adopting a presumption for all cable, Univision said.