Dish Wants Market Modification Rule Changes

A market modification should mean that TV stations wanting to be carried by satellite in that new territory must either be forced to be included as must-carry or must negotiate a new retransmission consent agreement, Dish Network said in a notice posted Friday in docket 15-71 regarding the Satellite Television Extension and Localism Act Reauthorization Act. In a meeting with staff, Dish executives raised the argument that market modification proposals before the FCC could create situations where satellite companies are forced to carry two stations affiliated with the same broadcast network in the same geographic area, with the best fix being to abandon the approach of letting a station whose market has been modified choose between retransmission consent or must-carry. Dish also reiterated its point that satellite companies should be allowed to say whether a proposed market modification is technically or economically doable without having to provide confidential business or market information. Similar, separate conversations with the FCC about market modification raise the point that satellite companies aren't required to provide evidence regarding areas they don't serve, so "it would be anomalous to require detailed showings for modified markets when such showings are not required for unmodified markets," DirecTV said.