Cable Groups Want Flexibility to Communicate With Subscribers

Clarify that cable operators don’t need to provide 30 days' advance notice of service changes when retransmission consent or carriage negotiations are ongoing during the last 30 days of a contract, said NCTA, Comcast, Charter and Cox in calls last week with aides to FCC Commissioners Jessica Rosenworcel and Brendan Carr, per a filing posted Friday in docket 17-105. Cable operators should instead be able to notify subscribers in writing, as soon as possible, the cablers said. The MVPDs also said requirements to provide 30 days' advance notice of rate or service changes to local franchise authorities is “an obsolete artifact of the era when cable rate regulation was widespread.” A similar “artifact” is the requirement that cable operators notify subscribers 30 days before changes to the information in annual notices, the filing said: Cable operators have "every incentive" to communicate effectively with subscribers, and "the Commission should grant cable operators the flexibility to determine how best to do so.”