Media General, NAB Want Carriage Rights for Channel Sharing Stations Post-Auction

The FCC should “promptly” give broadcasters “regulatory certainty” about how the agency will treat channel sharing deals, the NAB said in replies filed in docket 12-268 Friday. Parties in second-generation channel sharing arrangements (CSA) should maintain their carriage rights with multichannel video programming distributors, NAB said. In its own replies, Media General agreed with NAB but said the FCC should incentivize post-auction CSAs by compensating broadcasters that enter into them for their relinquished spectrum. Exempting such stations from the multiple ownership rules could be one such incentive, Media General said.