Broadcast Affiliates Talk Big Tech, Virtual MVPD Retrans With FCC's Simington

Big Tech platforms increasingly attract news consumers and advertisers to reach those audiences, but Big Tech needs to start fairly compensating local broadcasters for distributing that news content on their platforms, the Big Four broadcast affiliates told FCC Commissioner Nathan Simington, per a docket 14-261 ex parte post Friday. They cited the lack of regulatory parity between broadcasters and Big Tech, such as political advertising rules that apply to broadcasters but not tech platforms. They also continued their advocacy for virtual MVPDs to be subject to retransmission consent rules the same as traditional MVPDs; they brought up similar arguments with Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel and Commissioner Brendan Carr last month (see 2203170056).