Panel: Video Market Is Changing, but It's Unclear How Rules Should Adapt
The video distribution marketplace is in the midst of rapid and massive upheaval, but video rules experts were divided in a panel talk Monday about what needs to be done in response. At the Congressional Internet Caucus Academy event, former FCC Commissioner Mike O'Rielly called for eliminating the vast majority of the rules governing video distribution. Localities lawyer Cheryl Leanza of Best Best warned of the tendency of a "knee-jerk reaction" to deregulate without looking at why existing rules were adopted. Some archaic rules need to be done away with, she said, but rules that promote democracy and civic discourse must be maintained.
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
Communications Daily is required reading for senior executives at top telecom corporations, law firms, lobbying organizations, associations and government agencies (including the FCC). Join them today!
Many small and mid-sized cable operators have dumped video service, sending interested customers to YouTube TV instead, O'Rielly said. That means it makes more sense to scrap the burdens on the traditional pay-TV marketplace than to extend those rules to streaming providers, he said. The traditional rules regime often didn't work, he argued, pointing out that leased access "was a mess from the start." The retransmission consent regime likely needs to be kept for now because it's "such a messy situation ... but pretty much everything else can go by the wayside."
Tim Lordan, executive director of the Internet Education Foundation, said members of Congress are going to feel increasing pressure to deal with the rapidly changing linear TV marketplace. Kristian Stout, director of innovation policy at the International Center for Law & Economics, said that marketplace is in flux, with business models diverging from the regulatory presumptions that underpinned those rules when they were crafted.
Leanza challenged the notion that new means of distribution were easily available to independent programmers. Smaller content providers can post content on places like Facebook, but if they don't pay the platform to boost that content, no one will see it, she said. There needs to be a more level playing field that doesn't charge to reach audiences, she added, noting that there are still programmers that are forced to sign contracts for MVPD carriage that bar them from also going direct-to-consumer.
Stout said a fundamental problem that legacy video producers face is competing against tech platforms with huge resources. For example, Amazon makes some money off its Prime Video, "but they almost don't care" since the video service is part of a larger ecosystem of services, he said.
The panel also disagreed about a resolution introduced by Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, urging virtual MVPDs to add C-SPAN to their lineups. The cable industry created C-SPAN to get Congress on its side, Leanza said. However, C-SPAN can be seen as a public good, and it's still important to be able to view lawmakers at work, she said. O'Rielly said he's a fan of C-SPAN, but mandating its carriage is a stretch.