ATVA: Broadcast Retrans Gains Come at Consumer Expense

Rising stock prices for broadcasters “are coming at the expense of consumers,” said the American Television Alliance in a statement Wednesday: “The current regulatory environment enables big broadcasters to exploit loopholes that are responsible for thousands of consumer blackouts and massive annual price increases.” FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel recently announced proposals on retransmission blackouts that are considered more unfavorable to MVPDs than to broadcasters (see 2310110075). Gray Television released an investor presentation this week predicting continued growth in broadcast retrans consent revenue. “MVPD’s $40 billion annual spending on linear programming fees will continue to be reallocated to premium content providers and especially to broadcasters, particularly as the number of cable nets and [regional sports networks] continues to decline,” said the investor deck. “Migration of professional local/regional sports games to broadcast television provides a further opportunity to grow retrans revenues including by reallocating programming fees from cable nets and RSNs to local broadcast stations.” This broken system does not work for consumers and led to over 200 blackouts in 2023 alone, ATVA said: “We urge Congress and the FCC to act to end predatory practices by broadcasters at the expense of subscribers and ensure broadcasters fulfill their public interest obligations.” NAB didn’t comment.