Affiliate Groups Start Coalition for Streaming Retrans; DirecTV Blasts Nexstar

The four network affiliate associations are backing a new advocacy group to push the FCC and lawmakers to classify streaming services as MVPDs, said a news release and new website Tuesday from a newly formed coalition. “The Coalition for Local News is dedicated to the belief that local news is essential to the well-being of local communities across the nation and is a vital pillar of American democracy,” said the release, which discusses the disparity between retransmission consent rules for MVPDs versus streaming services. "The market has evolved dramatically and it's time for lawmakers and regulators to act to protect local broadcast news," the release said. The affiliate groups and other broadcasters -- with the support of some lawmakers -- have long called for the FCC to reopen a 2014 proceeding on classifying streaming services as MVPDs (see 2306230062). The FCC’s recent announcement it will refresh the record on carriage rules (see 2307120072) is “an acknowledgment of the need to modernize video regulations in light of a changing marketplace,” the release said. The coalition “will be engaged in an array of advocacy efforts, including working with groups that recognize the vital importance of local news and urging them to get involved in this debate,” the release said. DirecTV pushed back on calls to reopen the virtual MVPD proceeding in an ex parte filing posted Tuesday in docket 14-261. DirecTV is in the midst of a transmission consent dispute with Nexstar, and in the filing condemned the broadcaster for blacking out CW Network programming for DirecTV on both its own and Sinclair-owned stations. “Nexstar’s conduct shows that affiliates’ attempt to regulate online providers has never really been about 'preserving local broadcasting' or anything else of the sort," DirecTV said. “Affiliates simply want the government to give them leverage against the networks.” The “very last thing anybody should want to do is extend today’s dysfunctional retransmission consent market -- one whose dysfunction is caused largely by Nexstar -- into the online marketplace,” DirecTV said. "Nexstar is and always has been in full compliance with FCC regulations, and the allegations raised by DIRECTV in today’s filing are without merit," said a Nexstar spokesperson.