A cable industry priority for the new year is opposing the FCC's proposal that requires MVPDs to refund subscribers for programming blackouts due to failed retransmission consent talks with broadcasters, ACA Connects President Grant Spellmeyer told Communications Daily. In an interview, Spellmeyer discussed his 18 months as ACA head (see 2205170043), video's declining -- but not negligible -- importance to his members, and cable's broadband equity, access and deployment (BEAD) program concerns. The following transcript was edited for length and clarity.
Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP)
What is the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP)?
The Affordable Connectivity Program was a recently expired subsidy for low-income households to lower the cost of purchasing broadband internet and connected devices. The program was signed into law as part of the 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act and administered by the FCC up until June 1, 2024, due to expiration of the ACP’s funding.
Will the ACP Return?
Congress continues to debate restoring ACP funding, with immediate next steps likely to come from the Senate Commerce Committee or Congressional discussions on revising the Universal Service Fund.
to
articlessource documents
Refine Trend Search
Clear Terms
Search Primer
Term list: Separate terms with spaces, not commas or semicolons.
Multi-word term: Place inside quotes to ensure an exact match (e.g. "universal service fund").
Acronyms: Use all capital letters to ensure the search is not looking for that letter sequence instead.(e.g. NTIA).
Required term: If a term must be included in any resulting articles, prefix it with a plus sign (e.g., "FCC chairman" +Pai).
Excluded term: If a term should be excluded from any articles being found, prefix it with a minus sign (e.g., FCC -Carr).
Simplest form: Use the simplest form of a term (e.g. "satellite" instead of "satellites" or "impose" instead of "imposed").