ATVA Statement: Day 3 of Fox Blackout: Baseball Playoffs, NFL and Now “House” Goes Dark for Viewers; Time For Congress and FCC to Act

“The Fox blackout continues for a third day. This weekend sports fans were dragged into the middle, tonight it is ‘House’ fans. The only way to guarantee broadcasters can’t hold up viewers for ransom as a negotiating tool is for Congress and the FCC to change outdated rules. We applaud Senator John Kerry for his leadership and commitment to address the problem in Congress. We also urge the FCC to finally recognize the seriousness of the issue and take action.”

ALSO, we wanted to make sure you were aware that today the Free State Foundation showed the broad concern across the political spectrum, saying:

“Despite any suggestions to the contrary, negotiations between broadcasters and cable operators over retransmission consent do not take place in a “free market” context. There are significant government-imposed conditions and constraints…that alter the claimed free market context.  It is necessary to understand this fundamental point as a predicate to consideration of the changes suggested to the retransmission consent negotiation process.”

The Precursor blog also took a stand:
‘The current harm to consumers from the latest unnecessary incident of retransmission brinksmanship is the clear result of FCC regulatory failure…The reason some consumers currently are blacked out from their favorite sports programming is because the FCC has known for a long time, that it has a broken, out-of-date, and counter-productive retransmission negotiation process, and that it has not done anything to bring the process into the 21st century or to correct the dysfunctional imbalance that causes predictable serial disputes that harm consumers.