Mediacom Defends NAB-Derided 'Additional Stations' Plea

to negotiate for compensation of their signals, when really broadcasters "are hardly the defenders of competition and consumers that they make themselves out to be," the cable company said in a filing Tuesday in FCC docket 15-216. Mediacom and NAB have been disputing contractual provisions on when a broadcaster's retrans deal with a pay-TV company lets the broadcaster expand the deal to include any stations it acquires during the period of the contract, which Mediacom says should be considered a violation of good-faith negotiations (see 1603090049). Mediacom, in its latest missive, said broadcasters' rights to seek compensation for retransmission of their signals are "held to a higher standard than ordinary commercial transactions" by Congress, meaning broadcasters "do not have an unfettered right to make unreasonable negotiating demands and engage in unreasonable negotiating tactics." Mediacom said it has filled the record with "substantive legal, factual and policy arguments" on the need for retrans consent changes, and NAB arguments broadcasters are motivated to sign retrans consent agreements ignore that broadcasters obviously hold the reins in such talks -- the proof being retrans consent fees "going up at hyper-inflationary rates year after year." Mediacom also repeated its call for the FCC to adopt one or more of its retrans rule change proposals (see 1512020029 and 1603040050). NAB didn't comment.