Video Market Competition Hearings Expected in House, Senate
The House Communications Subcommittee is eying a series of hearings on the state of video competition next year, Rep. Lee Terry, R-Neb., told Communications Daily. The Senate Commerce Committee is also expected to have a hearing on the subject, Hill and industry officials said. The hearings are spurred at least in part by legislation (HR-3675, S-2008) introduced this month by Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., and Rep. Steve Scalise, R-La., broadcast and telecom industry lobbyists said. But the DeMint-Scalise bill itself is unlikely to pass as written, they said.
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"We are seeing an increased number of constituents asking why their cable bills are continuing to climb while at the same time there seems to be more competition than ever in the video marketplace,” said Terry, vice chairman of the House Communications Subcommittee. “It’s an excellent question and deserves a public examination.” Technological change has vastly increased the number of ways people watch video since the passage of the 1992 Cable Act, a law that turns 20 next year, Terry said. “What better way to mark its anniversary than to hold a series of hearings on the Act’s successes, failures and relevance today."
The Senate Commerce Committee also is mulling a hearing next year, said Hill and industry officials. DeMint has discussed the need for hearings on the video and media marketplace with committee leaders, and Chairman Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., and Ranking Member Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, “each seem interested in doing that in the New Year,” a Senate GOP aide said. A hearing seems especially likely because DeMint is ranking member of the Senate Communications Subcommittee and the subcommittee’s chairman, John Kerry, D-Mass., has historically shown interest in the subject, a broadcast industry lobbyist said.
As written, the DeMint-Scalise bill “has a snowball’s chance in Hell” of moving through Congress, a broadcast industry lobbyist said. The Senate is controlled by Democrats who generally oppose free-market bills. But even for the Republican-controlled House, the deregulatory bill proposes too many repeals to have a realistic chance of moving in its current form, multiple broadcast lobbyists said. “The election year is going to keep the agenda pretty tight, and I am not sure that either the House or Senate are ready for another big fight on broadcast issues after spectrum,” one of the lobbyists said. While the DeMint/Scalise bills are not viewed as the final vehicle for video competition reform, they are a starting point for discussions, two telecom industry officials said.
The bill could lay the groundwork for Congressional work on the next renewal of satellite TV providers’ distant signal licenses, a broadcast industry lobbyist said. The current authorization expires at the end of 2014. The deregulatory bill proposes to eliminate “the statutory copyright that undergirds” the authorization, and several members of the Judiciary committees, including House Judiciary Chairman Lamar Smith, R-Texas, supported elimination leading up to the last reauthorization, the lobbyist said.
NAB has condemned the DeMint-Scalise bill as threatening to free market negotiations and broadcast localism. “This hits right at the heart of local broadcasting, so we're going to have to be vigilant and educate members about the consequences,” an NAB spokesman said Wednesday. “If you want to gut the revenue stream that funds local news and keeps marquee programming like the Super Bowl and the Final Four, Modern Family and 60 Minutes on broadcast TV, this would be the bill to do it.” But other video providers, including Verizon, DirecTV, CenturyLink and the American Cable Association have supported the bill for spurring discussion on updating video marketplace rules. Verizon on Tuesday said the bill “should start a much-needed conversation about modernizing America’s video policies to respond to rapidly changing consumer demands.”