The Commission’s recent Notice of Proposed Rule Making exploring possible changes to the television retransmission consent rules has now been published in the Federal Register setting the date for Comments as May 27th, with Reply Comments due by June 27. As we wrote about recently (here), the FCC has commenced a rule making to consider revising its rules governing the interaction and negotiations between cable operators and broadcasters regarding carriage of local broadcast television stations. Among other things, the NPRM seeks input on strengthening the good faith negotiation rules, changes to the notice requirements to require advance notice to consumers of carriage changes, and input on the potential benefits and harms of eliminating the Commission’s network non-duplication and syndicated exclusivity rules. Again, interested parties have until May 27th to file comments with the Commission either in paper or through the FCC’s Electronic Comment Filing System. Reply Comments will be due by June 27th.
