Senate Commerce Schedules Retrans Hearing

As expected, the Senate Commerce Committee's
Communications Subcommittee has officially announced it will hold a hearing on
retransmission consent Nov. 17.

Dubbed "Television Viewers, Retransmission
Consent, and the Public Interest," the hearing will be at 2:30 p.m. in the
Russell Senate Office Building.

The committee has not released a witness list, but
representatives from Fox and Cablevision are expected to be invited, as well as
from independent producers and possibly from the FCC.

Charles Segars, head of independent channelOvation, is expected to testify,
according to a source close to the executive.

The subcommittee is headed by John Kerry (D-Mass.), who proposed retranslegislation in the wake of the Fox/Cablevision retrans impasse.

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.