CBS Radio Rejects ATVA ‘Local Choice’ Ads

Radio Stations Stifle Important Debate Across U.S.

Washington, D.C. August 28, 2014– CBS radio stations around the country have rejected to air a new ad from the American Television Alliance that supports a new proposal called “local choice” and was recently unveiled by the bipartisan leadership of the Senate Commerce Committee.

“CBS’s actions are certainly unethical and deserve the attention of Congress,” American Television Alliance spokesman Brian Frederick said. “It’s definitely not in the public interest to cut off voices because CBS disagrees with them. Broadcasters are stifling debate the same way they stifle innovation.”

All four CBS-owned stations that ATVA submitted its ad to rejected the ad. Those stations are: KMOX in St. Louis, WCCO in Minneapolis, KXNT in Las Vegas, and KDKA in Pittsburgh.

“Local choice will put an end to the back-and-forth negotiations between broadcasters and cable and satellite companies,” a narrator said in the radio ad states. “Instead, viewers can decide which local channels they want to pay for. Local choice will help update our TV laws to the 21st Century.”

If local choice becomes law, pay-TV companies will simply collect the money in full from consumers and pass it through to the broadcasters without any mark-ups. The idea for local choice came from Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) and Ranking Member John Thune (R-SD), who propose including it as part of the Satellite Television Extension and Localism Act (STELA) reauthorization.

“Local choice allows broadcasters to receive the fair market value they’ve been claiming they don’t receive and gives consumers choice,” Frederick said. “There’s no such thing as TV freedom when the government forces consumers to pay for broadcast channels they may not want.”