The FCC's decision to deny a Time Warner Cable (NYSE: TWC) retransmission-consent related petition is not a precedent and shouldn't be used to dismiss a similar petition being pushed forward by the American Cable Association (ACA), the small cable operator organization told the Commission.
The ACA wants the FCC to deny the sale of a Topeka television station because it would most likely result in a retransmission troika that makes it more difficult-if not expensive--for small operators to cut retrans deals. The FCC rejected a similar petition from Time Warner Cable to block a set of station sales in Wisconsin and Ohio, noting that collective bargaining for the station's retrans payments didn't violate FCC rules.
That's different, the ACA argued, from the Topeka case where there is a "significant likelihood that three of the major network affiliates ... would coordinate their retrans negotiations to the disservice of the public and ACA members." At the very least, the ACA said, three stations with collective bargaining power are more dangerous than two, as was the case with the TWC petition.
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