Programmers Respond to FCC Testimony

Century Fox in a joint letter Friday responding to FCC testimony a day earlier to the Senate Commerce Committee (see 1609150045). “That is true whether the Commission’s exercise of oversight relates to a license permitting a device manufacturer to distribute content via apps, or whether such oversight relates to the private commercial agreements that programmers enter into with multichannel video programming distributors,” the programmers said in docket 16-42. “We have encouraged the Commission to include as part of any new rules certain protections to promote competition, consumer choice, and the continued investment in content, but we have never asked the FCC to interject itself into our agreements.” The approach in the draft item “neither respects the sanctity of programming agreements nor upholds the copyright licensing regime by which programming is distributed,” said representatives of NCTA, Cox, Charter Communications, Comcast and AT&T/DirecTV in a meeting with an aide to Commissioner Ajit Pai Wednesday, said a filing posted Friday. “We expressed concern that the Chairman’s proposal to require MVPDs to provide an information flow of entitlement data is unnecessary, unlawful, and like the original unbundling proposal in the NPRM, sacrifices consumer privacy.” The draft item would hurt innovation, since a requirement that the pay-TV-provided apps have to offer all the services that the MVPD set-top offers ”would prohibit the launch of any new feature in a set-top box unless equivalent functionality can be provided through all apps that are -- or once were -- widely deployed,” the pay-TV representatives said. “Requiring Commission or other licensing review and approval of proposed amendments to the standard license would also constrain innovation.” Also Friday, the House Judiciary Committee chairman and ranking member expressed concerns (see 1609160058).