AT&T Misled Media Bureau, Say Deerfield, Other Broadcasters
AT&T “misled” the FCC Media Bureau into ruling that Deerfield Media and other broadcasters with sidecar arrangements with Sinclair violated good-faith retransmission consent rules (see 1912100057), said a heavily redacted reply from the broadcast defendants posted Friday in docket 19-168…
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in support of their application for review. The bureau ruled that the agent negotiating retransmission terms for the joint parties failed to negotiate, but the agent provided three draft agreements to AT&T on the stations’ behalf, the reply noted. “It was simply AT&T’s self-serving theory -- and later the Bureau’s speculation -- that the agent was lying or mistaken when he claimed to be negotiating terms for the Joint Parties.” AT&T has made opposite arguments elsewhere, the broadcasters said. The decision threatens to “tilt the playing field for future negotiations farther in favor of market-dominant MVPDs like AT&T,” the station owners said. AT&T didn't comment.