Time Warner Cable asked the FCC in a meeting with Commissioner Ajit Pai Wednesday to targetnso-called collusion by competing TV stations in retransmission consent negotiations, according to an exnparte letter filed Thursday (http://bit.ly/14KpjKe). Latham & Watkins attorney Matthew Brill said broadcastersnare misusing local marketing agreements, shared services agreements and joint sales agreements ton“collude in negotiating retransmission consent.” TWC referenced an American Cable Association reportnthat showed as of April 2012, there were 65 instances of sharing agreements between two or more separatelynowned Big Four stations in 58 designated market areas across the country, with “48 instances in 43nDMAs where retransmission consent negotiations were conducted by a single representative for two ornmore stations.” To combat the problem, TWC asked the agency to rule that a station’s assignment of itsnright to negotiate retransmission consent to another station requires commission approval and make it an“per se violation of the good-faith negotiation standard” to grant negotiation rights when the stationsnaren’t both owned by the same party.
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