Eleven U.S. independent cable operators and the American Cable Association have joined together to seek retransmission consent reform on Capitol Hill.

The new coalition, F.A.C.T.S., Fair Access for Cable Television Subscribers, A Coalition of Independent Cable Operators, serves approximately 14 million subscribers.

Independent cable companies joining F.A.C.T.S. are Armstrong Cable, Atlantic Broadband, Bresnan Communications, Cable One, Charter Communications, Harron Communications, Mediacom Communications, Millennium Digital Media, Sunflower Broadband, Wave Broadband, Wide Open West, plus ACA.

Members of F.A.C.T.S. are independent, non-vertically integrated cable companies serving customers primarily in markets where these companies are not the dominant video provider. F.A.C.T.S. members are leaders in providing broadband service to customers in smaller markets and rural areas.

"Once intended to preserve localism, out-of-date federal broadcast carriage rules have evolved into a means for commercial broadcasters to seek new revenues, resulting in increased costs to the consumer and forced carriage of unwanted programming," said Neil Smit, president and CEO of Charter. "Retransmission consent must be reformed to address these unintended consequences."

Coalition member Jim Bruder, president of Harron Communications, said that the formation of this coalition brings more diverse voices together to "help focus attention on seeking reform" to outdated retransmission consent and broadcast carriage rules.

"F.A.C.T.S. will stand with the many other industry and consumer voices that have already taken on reform of retransmission consent," Bruder said. "Our coalition will show there are many voices arrayed against self-serving broadcasters and networks. These big media companies and their representatives are trying to preserve their ability to gouge our customers through higher and higher retransmission consent demands. Rising cable rates can be directly tied to abuses of retransmission consent by media conglomerates. That's not what Congress intended."

ACA's Polka said his organization and members are happy to be a part of the F.A.C.T.S. effort because "retransmission consent reform is critical to addressing the concerns about choice, cost and content.

"ACA has consistently advocated retransmission consent reform for small and medium-sized cable companies," Polka added. "Working with F.A.C.T.S. shows the growing nature of the problem and the need for more collective action."

Dave Keefe, CEO of Atlantic Broadband, added: "Our coalition will highlight the need for parity of broadcast carriage rules applied to both cable and DBS."

According to the members of the Coalition, F.A.C.T.S. will work to achieve reform language in the Telecom Bills currently being considered in Congress and generate significant grassroots efforts by cable operators and their customers.

"We all recognize the importance of localism, and there's nothing more local than the person paying the bill. Self-serving broadcasters are using retransmission consent to raise cable prices, and Congress needs to stop them," said Tom Might, president and CEO of Cable One.


http://www.cablecastermagazine.com/i...issue=05182006