ATVA Applauds FCC Chairman’s Acknowledgement of “Real Issues” Raised by Broadcasters’ Shared Service Agreements in Retrans

 WASHINGTON D.C.  May 22, 2012 — Today at the Cable Show, FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski said that broadcasters leveraging shared services agreements (SSAs) to jointly negotiate retransmission consent agreements is “problematic” and “raises real issues.”  We couldn’t agree more.  Collusion in retrans negotiations is giving TV stations unchecked market power to threaten multiple station blackouts and spark skyrocketing fees. To protect consumers, the FCC should ban separately owned broadcast stations in the same market from coordinating these negotiations and tighten scrutiny of SSAs.