American Cable Association President and CEO Matthew M. Polka issued a statement yesterday agreeing with information surrounding the FCC Reauthorization Act of 2016 circulated by Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John Thune. ACA has close to 850 small and medium-sized independent operator members.
“It is important that federal laws and regulations stay up-to-date with current marketplace conditions. ACA agrees with Commerce Chairman Sen. Thune that work on an FCC reauthorization bill can be useful in achieving this outcome and yielding more certainty for market participants and the millions of consumers they serve,” Polka says.
He adds that the ACA is looking forward to working with the entire Senate Committee on a number of issues important to independent cable operators if not in the FCC reauthorization bill, then in a future piece of legislation. Those issues include program access, retransmission consent, set-top access mandates and broadband-related matters.
“In particular, ACA is pleased that Sen. Thune’s bill will examine FCC regulatory fees. ACA has pointed out on several occasions that the FCC’s regulatory fee program has treated cable operators unfairly by exempting satellite TV providers from paying their fair share of the cost to support the regulatory activities of the FCC’s Media Bureau,” Polka says.
“Although the FCC has finally begun to reduce fee burdens on cable providers, Sen. Thune’s bill takes the right approach by requiring the Government Accountability Office to determine whether the current fee structure correlates to the actual workload of the FCC.”
Filed Under: Industry regulations