NCTA: FCC Can't Redefine OVDs as MVPDs

The National Cable & Telecommunications Association says that in the wake of Title II reclassification, which NCTA argues was unnecessary, the FCC is following up with another free-market disruptor.

Cable operators continue to argue that the FCC does not have the authority to define some online video providers (OVDs) as MVPDs for the purposes of insuring them nondiscriminatory access to programming.

The FCC has tentatively concluded that linear OVDs—ones that deliver day-and-date programming similar to traditional cable and satellite systems—should be defined as MVPDs, though it has lots of questions of whether and how that should happen.

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John Eggerton

Contributing editor John Eggerton has been an editor and/or writer on media regulation, legislation and policy for over four decades, including covering the FCC, FTC, Congress, the major media trade associations, and the federal courts. In addition to Multichannel News and Broadcasting + Cable, his work has appeared in Radio World, TV Technology, TV Fax, This Week in Consumer Electronics, Variety and the Encyclopedia Britannica.