Dear Member of Congress:
Onbehalf of the 362,000 members of the National Taxpayers Union (NTU), I urge youto cosponsor and support H.R. 3675 and S. 2008, the “Next Generation TelevisionMarketplace Act.” Introduced by Representative Steve Scalise (R-LA) and SenatorJim DeMint (R-SC), respectively, these important pieces of legislation would beginto untangle the complex web of regulations and preferences that exist intelevision service by repealing provisions that distort the marketplace andharm consumers.
Thebills target several rules and regulations that were drafted decades ago andare ill-suited to the vastly more vibrant and competitive television marketthat exists now. First, the legislation repeals carriage-mandates of certainbroadcast signals by cable and satellite operators. The bills also eliminateretransmission consent and compulsory license provisions, thereby placingnegotiations between television content and service providers on a more leveland clearly delineated playing field. These rules were intended to protectbroadcasters from cable monopolies that simply no longer exist, and arecounter-productive to negotiations between the two today. Finally, it cancelsonerous limitations on media ownership that are not reflective of the widevariety of news and entertainment sources available to consumers in a givenlocal area.
Takentogether, these policy changes would go a long way toward remedying thedamaging wars of negotiation that have left millions of consumers blacked outfrom the content they desire. Importantly, they would do so without resortingto further bureaucratic interference or government intervention. Some haveproposed giving the Federal Communications Commission more power to guideretransmission agreements and the agency is currently considering tweaks to thesystem. But these approaches rely on the faulty assumption that rebalancing anuneven scale is superior to removing government’s thumb from it entirely. TheNext Generation Television Marketplace Act rejects the former, heavy-handedapproach and instead seeks to remove obstacles, not reconfigure them.
WhileNTU believes that Congress should undertake a more fundamental and wide-rangingoverhaul of outdated communications laws to reduce regulatory barriers, theNext Generation Television Marketplace Act will provide a head start on theprocess while addressing a growing problem in need of a near-term solution. We commend Representative Scalise andSenator DeMint for their work and urge you to cosponsor and support these vitalbills. Any roll call votes on H.R. 3675 or S. 2008 will be significantlyweighted in NTU’s annual Rating of Congress.
Sincerely,
Andrew Moylan
Vice President ofGovernment Affairs