NCTA Seeks Changes in Blackout Reporting Proposal

An FCC proposal that would require MVPDs to report retransmission consent blackouts should apply only to blackouts of primary streams on full-power stations and low-power TV or multicast streams that carry a network feed, NCTA argued during an Oct. 25 meeting with an aide to Commissioner Anna Gomez, according to an ex parte filing posted Wednesday in docket 23-472. Though the FCC has proposed requiring such reports after a blackout lasts more than 24 hours, NCTA said the period should be longer and that MVPDs should have two business days to file. “Retransmission consent negotiations are complex and often involve numerous stations,” NCTA said. “Collecting and filing the information will be a time-consuming process that could distract from efforts to resolve the blackout.” The FCC shouldn’t require MVPDs to disclose the number of subscribers a blackout affects, NCTA added. “Such data is commercially sensitive information, and the burden of compiling it for disclosure would outweigh any benefit that its submission would achieve.”