Details

Titel

FCC sets 'standstill' procedures in program carriage complaints

Ist Teil von

• Telecommunications Reports, 2011, Vol.77 (16), p.15

Ort / Verlag

Washington: Aspen Publishers, Inc

Erscheinungsjahr

2011

Link zum Volltext

Quelle

Business Source Ultimate

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• Specifically, the order requires the Media Bureau to "release a decision within 60 calendar days after its prima facie determination" in cases decided on the merits without discovery and within 150 days in cases decided on the merits after discovery. For complaints referred to an administrative law judge (ALJ), the FCC directed "the ALJ to release an initial decision within 240 calendar days after one of the parties informs the Chief ALJ that it elects not to pursue ADR [alternative dispute resolution] or, if the parties have mutually elected to pursue ADR, within 240 calendar days after the parties inform the Chief ALJ that they have failed to resolve their dispute through ADR." Regarding the standstill requirement, the order says, 'The record reflects that, absent a standstill, an MVPD will have the ability to retaliate against a programming vendor that files a legitimate complaint by ceasing carriage of the programming vendor's video programming, thereby harming the programming vendor as well as viewers who have come to expect to be able to view that video programming. Moreover, absent a standstill, programming vendors may feel compelled to agree to the carriage demands of MVPDs, even if these demands violate the program carriage rules, in order to maintain carriage of video programming in which they have made substantial investments." The NPRM also seeks input on a proposal to codify a requirement that a multichannel video programming distributor (MVPD) "must make an evidentiary showing to the Media Bureau or an ALJ [administrative law judge] as to whether a mandatory carriage remedy would result in deletion of other programming." It proposes requiring "a vertically integrated MVPD to negotiate in good faith with an unaffiliated programming vendor with respect to video programming that is similarly situated to video programming affiliated with the MVPD." In a separate statement, Commissioner [Robert M. McDowell] said that while he supported provisions in the order that set "forth the requirements to establish a prima facie case, along with timelines for filings and decisions," he dissented from the new rules requiring MVPDs "to continue to carry programming on pre-existing terms and conditions ... until a program carriage dispute is resolved ... [because the FCC] did not provide adequate notice and opportunity for comment under the Administrative Procedure Act."