Video Reform Advocates Seek New Senate Sponsor
The unexpected announcement by Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., that he’s leaving the Senate has advocates of new pay-TV legislation searching for a new senator to take up their cause. DeMint, who might have risen to ranking member on the Senate Commerce Committee and been in a strong position to shepherd a new version of his S-2008, the Next Generation TV Marketplace Act, is set to run the Heritage Foundation (CD Dec 7 p1). So far, no senator has stepped up to revive the issue, but a Republican aide to the Commerce Committee said Tuesday that there has been some interest from members to reintroduce the bill in the next Congress.
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Meanwhile, Rep. Steve Scalise, R-La., said he plans next year to reintroduce his version of the bill, which would get rid of retransmission consent rules and most media ownership rules. “One clear take away from the initial House and Senate video hearings this year is that there’s a lot of strong interest among my colleagues in reviewing and modernizing decades-old video regulations that impede innovation and limit consumer choice,” he said in an email statement. “Clearly we need a champion in the Senate,” Scalise told us after Wednesday’s FCC oversight hearing. “We're going to continue to push it in the House,” he said. For now, the path it will take in the next Congress is still unclear. “We don’t even know what the makeup of the subcommittee is yet,” he said. “We've always said that this is the start of a long conversation about how to modernize the video marketplace laws."
Industry sources echoed Scalise’s assessment. “DeMint was the person who took the time to draft the bill but there is interest from other offices,” a former committee aide said. “It’s going to be incumbent upon those seeking reform to go out and find a new champion."
DeMint’s decision to resign from the Senate was disappointing for those seeking to change the rules, said a cable lawyer critical of retransmission consent rules. “DeMint was the person leading the conversation” in the Senate and his departure “leaves a void,” the lawyer said. “He was going to have trouble moving his deregulatory legislation with Rockefeller as chairman but, again getting the conversation started was real important."
Advocates hope to use 2013 to keep discussion about the legislation going and find a Democrat who might introduce a bill similar to what John Kerry, D-Mass., drafted two years ago (CD Nov 2/2010 p1). “That might at least get a path toward meeting the DeMint-Scalise bill in the middle."
Without a major retransmission consent dispute resulting in a large disruption of service, it may be difficult to identify a new champion, a broadcast industry official who opposes changing the rules said. “I just don’t know who takes up that mantle now,” the official said. “If there are disruptions, prominent disruptions, Congress will at least pay lip service to wanting that to go away.”