March 24, 2021 - Public Issue
ACA CONNECTS: KEY DEVELOPMENTS
ACA Connects: New NFL TV Deals Will Leave Cable Customers with the Financial Equivalent of a Torn ACL
ACA Connects President and CEO Matthew M. Polka issued the following statement March 19 on news that the National Football League has reached new long-term deals with its media partners:
“Yesterday, the NFL announced new TV rights agreements with CBS, NBC, Fox, and Disney’s ABC and ESPN. According to published reports, these deals are worth an estimated $95 billion combined — more than double their current annual payments to the NFL.
“While media giants ABC, NBC, CBS and Fox spike the ball in the end zone, ACA Connects members are troubled because they know these deals will leave millions of consumers with the financial equivalent of a torn ACL. Broadcast networks and TV station owners like Sinclair, Nexstar, Tegna and Apollo Global Management will continue to leverage the broken retransmission consent rules to demand excessive fees from smaller cable operators, driving up the cost to watch what broadcasters like to call ‘free TV.’ In order to make up for their massive NFL obligations, broadcasters will hike their prices even higher — and, ironically, use blackouts of NFL games themselves in order to do so.
“These broadcast giants have just asked Congress for stimulus funds in order to — as they claim -– ‘preserve’ local TV news. Perhaps they could have spent some of the $95 billion they just committed to secure NFL rights instead.” Read more.
ATVA: AMERICAN TELEVISION ALLIANCE
The American Television Alliance (ATVA), of which ACA Connects is a member, issued the following statement after re-introduction of the Modern Television Act of 2021 on March 11:
ATVA Applauds Scalise and Eshoo for Introduction of Modern Television Act of 2021; Legislation Will Bring Nation’s Video Laws into 21st Century
The American Television Alliance (ATVA) today applauded Reps. Steve Scalise (R-La.) and Anna Eshoo (D-Calif.) for the reintroduction of the Modern Television Act. “We applaud Representatives Scalise and Eshoo for their bipartisan leadership and commitment to modernizing the nation’s video laws,” said ATVA spokesperson Jessica Kendust. “The Modern Television Act of 2021 will bring badly outdated video laws into the 21st century and correct dysfunction in the marketplace that artificially inflates prices for consumers and causes service disruptions.”
“After broadcasters set records for retransmission blackouts during a public health crisis over the last year, it is more urgent than ever this legislation be advanced,” Kendust continued. “We commend Representatives Eshoo and Scalise for their foresight and understanding that now is the time to update this nearly 30-year-old system for the benefit of American television consumers.”
ATVA: FILINGS
The American Television Alliance (ATVA) filed the ex parte letter below to document a meeting on various media policy issues with the office of acting FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel. It is representative of similar meetings held the same day with the offices of FCC Commissioner Geoffrey Starks, FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr, Commissioner Nathan Simington, and FCC Media Bureau personnel.
Filing 3/18: Notice of Ex Parte Communication in: MB Docket No. 18-349 (Quadrennial Review); MB Docket No. 10-71 (Retransmission Consent), Office of FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel
ACA CONNECTS CLOSEUP VIDEO: MIKE JACOBS
ACACloseup Videos: You work with us every day and talk via phone, Zoom and email, but what do you really know about your ACA Connects Team? Here’s the chance to meet us “close up.”
We’ll post a new ACACloseup video in our ACAction Brief, our Daily Media Sweep and on social media, giving you insight into the background, experience, favorite teams and fun things about your ACA Connects Team Members. We had fun doing these videos for you, and we’re glad to tell you more about us!
You can find all our ACACloseup videos on our ACAConnects website In this video, meet Mike Jacobs, ACA Connects VP of Regulatory Affairs, who joined the organization in Feb. 2020 by way of ITTA, where he was VP of Regulatory Affairs, and by way of the FCC, where he worked for 18 years total, most recently as Legal Advisor to the Chief of the Wireline Competition Bureau.
Working at the FCC runs in the Jacobs family as Mike’s father, Jerry, was an FCC attorney who worked on the cable TV task force when Mike was just a kid. Mike’s got a lot going on away from the job. If you want to make friends with Mike fast, just say you like the Allman Brothers Band.
To view Mike’s interview, please click here.
ACA CONNECTS: BLOG
Fill Our Conversations With Kind Words
By Crystal Kemp, Chief Marketing Officer, Conway Corp.
“Kind hearts are the gardens, Kind thoughts are the roots, Kind words are the flowers, Kind deeds are the fruits, Take care of your garden And keep out the weeds, Fill it with sunshine, Kind words, and Kind deeds.” ― Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
I’ve started this note several times. I’ve been thinking about how much our words matter. But I really haven’t been sure how to share that in a way that communicated all I want to communicate.
On the heels of the weirdest winter storm I’ve ever seen in Arkansas, and a couple of days that feel like spring, I decided on these words from Longfellow, “Kind words are the flowers…”
I want to challenge us as we enter the one-year anniversary of COVID-19 response in our communities, businesses and homes to remember to fill our conversations with kind words. We are going to need each other as much now as we have over the past 12 months.
Back in September, I shared this chart with you. https://www.samhsa.gov/dtac/recovering-disasters/phases-disaster The chart shows us at a stage of working through grief as we enter a phase of reconstruction. My hope is that we will cheer each other on through this time. We have and we can continue to do hard things. Let’s do them with as much kindness to one another as we can muster! Read more.
ACA CONNECTS: NEWS HEADLINES
FCC's Carr Blasts Gov-Funded Broadband Overbuilding (Next TV, 3/15) GOP FCC commissioner Brendan Carr said government should not roll back progress with "heavy-handed policies that would turn back the clock on the progress we’ve made." Those include, efforts to subsidize overbuilds with government money--something likely to happen with the billions Congress has allocated to an effort to achieve universal broadband, with Democrats emphasizing that affordability should be in that definition of universal access.
Mozilla Leads Push For FCC To Reinstate Net Neutrality (CNBC, 3/19) Tech companies led by Mozilla are urging the FCC to swiftly reinstate Net Neutrality rules stripped away under the Trump administration. In a letter to FCC Acting Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel on Friday, ADT, Dropbox, Eventbrite, Reddit, Vimeo and Wikimedia joined Mozilla, the maker of the Firefox web browser, in calling net neutrality “critical for preserving the Internet as a free and open medium that promotes innovation and spurs economic growth.”
For TV, NFL Deal Is Likely A Matter Of Survival (AP, 3/22) The $113 billion deal to telecast NFL games through 2033 is head-swimmingly large — until you consider that the very survival of broadcast networks as we know them may depend upon it. Pro football is still dependable. Live sports is now the top reason people cite for subscribing to cable or satellite television hook-ups, said Dennis Deninger, a longtime ESPN employee and now a professor in the Falk College of Sport & Human Dynamics at Syracuse University. “They are banking on the interest in sports to help them survive,” Deninger said.
A Closer Look At Cable vs. 5G Fixed Wireless (Light Reading, 3/16) Will 5G and midband spectrum give AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile the ability to directly challenge the nation's cable Internet providers with their own in-home broadband offerings? A full-throated, resounding answer appears to be: "Well, not really. At least not right now."
YouTube To Show 21 MLB Games This Season (TV NewsCheck, 3/15) YouTube will broadcast a Major League Baseball package of games for a third season, The series of 21 telecasts start on Wednesday, April 7 at 1:10 p.m. EDT when the Boston Red Sox host the AL champion Tampa Bay Rays in the finale of a two-game series.
Grammys Suffer Steep Fall in Early Numbers (H’wood Reporter, 3/15) The Grammy Awards joined a host of other awards shows in experiencing sizable ratings losses. CBS' broadcast of the awards drew 8.8 million viewers and a 2.1 rating among adults 18-49, according to time zone-adjusted fast national ratings from Nielsen.
ACA CONNECTS: ACTION BRIEF TOP THREE
Most-Clicked Links From March 9, 2021 ACAction Brief:
1. 'Rural Cable Is All The Rage,' Analysts Say (S&P Global, 3/1)
2. Altice USA to Buy Morris Broadband for $310 Million (Next TV, 3/1)
3. Altice USA CEO Envisions End Of Traditional Cable (Light Reading, 3/1)
ABOUT ACA CONNECTS Across this vast country, small and rural markets participate in the digital revolution by receiving video, broadband, and phone services from more than 700 small and medium-sized independent operators represented by ACA Connects - America’s Communications Association.
ACA Connects' members -- cable, phone, and fiber-to-the- home operators and municipalities -- deliver affordable basic and advanced services to nearly 8 million households and businesses. ACA Connects members operate in every state, offering high-definition television, next generation Internet access, and digital phone service.
Access to advanced communications is not a luxury but a critical necessity for consumers and companies, schools and hospitals. America's economic prosperity in smaller markets and rural areas depends on the growth and success of ACA Connects members, who believe a connected nation, is a united nation. ACA Connects asks lawmakers and regulators to ensure fair treatment so that small and medium-sized independent operators may continue to supply affordable video, broadband, and phone services to Main Street America. Through active participation in the policymaking process, ACA Connects members and leaders advocate for the interests of their customers, their companies, and their communities to help ensure the continued viability of their way of life in hometown America.
For more information, visit www.acaconnects.org, or contact:
Ross Lieberman, SVP Government Affairs 202-494-5661 | [email protected]
Ted Hearn, VP Communications 202-713-0826 | [email protected]
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