ACA Issues Statement on Retransmission

American Cable Association President and CEO Matthew Polka issued the following statement regarding Sen. Kerry’s letter to the FCC chairman, urging retransmission consent reform:

"ACA agrees with Sen. Kerry that there must be some limit to the broadcasters’ right to pull their signals from customers of cable and satellite operators during retransmission consent negotiations. It’s deplorable, but hardly surprising to small cable operators, that the Walt Disney Co. would engage in such an extreme tactic as pulling its ABC signal from 3.1 million Cablevision Systems Corp. customers on the eve of a major television event like the Oscars, simply to extract more cash from cable customers boxed in by a broken retransmission consent regime.

"ACA applauds Sen. Kerry for his leadership in urging the Federal Communications Commission to revise the retransmission consent rules, which unfairly allow broadcasters to demand much higher fees from smaller cable operators than larger ones in the same market, and then pull their signals when those unreasonable demands aren’t met."