Nexstar: FCC Should Disregard DirecTV Argument on vMPVDs

The FCC should disregard DirecTV’s “specious filing” seeking “to bootstrap a vMVPD copyright licensing issue into the retransmission consent regime,” said Nexstar in an ex parte letter posted Friday to virtual MVPD proceeding docket 14-261. A DirecTV filing Tuesday (see 2307180058) argued Nexstar’s conduct in an ongoing retrans dispute with DirecTV showed the FCC shouldn’t revisit the streaming issue. In a separate ex parte filing Friday, NAB told an aide to Commissioner Geoffrey Starks that an FCC refresh of the virtual MVPD docket would gather far more information “about vMVPDs’ growth and impact on the video marketplace and on local television viewers” than the 2014 NPRM did when streaming was in “its infancy.” The satellite company “seeks to embroil the Commission in a private dispute concerning The CW’s copyrights” and use the docket as “a vehicle in its continuing campaign to disparage Nexstar,” the broadcaster filing said. A blackout of the Nexstar-owned CW network against DirecTV by multiple broadcasters stems from the direct broadcast satellite company carrying the network for several months without permission from Nexstar, said Nexstar. “That is a matter of copyright law, and any remedies related to DIRECTV’s infringement would need to be addressed in the appropriate judicial venue. DIRECTV is not the wronged party here -- it is the lawbreaker,” Nexstar said. “Dragging that copyright dispute into other proceedings is the same tactic DIRECTV is employing in other venues,” Nexstar said. DirecTV is pursuing an antitrust complaint against Nexstar in U.S. District Court for Southern New York in Manhattan (see 2307140034) and the two companies are embroiled in further retrans litigation in front of the New York Supreme Court. Dragging unrelated proceedings into the retrans dispute is “an abuse of process,” Nexstar said. "Nexstar’s behavior underscores the widely adopted position that the Commission should not extend the retransmission consent regime to online providers," emailed a DirecTV spokesperson. "DIRECTV was carrying those CWs through our valid agreement with that station group, an agreement that pre-dated Nexstar’s acquisition of the national CW network."