Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) has announced the agenda for a business meeting 9/17/14, and a controversial satellite service reauthorization bill is a key plank.
The committee will convene at 2:30PM local time to consider S. 2799, The Satellite Television Access and Viewer Rights Act and 11 other items of business.
Broadcasters are expressing dismay with the bill, since it veers away from its core topic into the controversial area of retransmission consent negotiations between broadcasters and MVPDs.
While an extremely controversial plank has been removed from the bill, the so-called “Local Choice” legislation proposed by Rockefeller and Committee Ranking Member John Thune (R-SD), it still has one-sided language that restricts the ability of broadcasters to negotiate agreements while putting no constraints whatsoever on the parties sitting on the other side of the negotiating table.
