The Senate Communications Subcommittee has made it official, issuing a witness list Monday for its retransmission consent hearing Nov. 17 that includes heavy hitters on both sides of the issue.
Confirming a report in B&C/Multichannel News, scheduled to testify are Glenn Britt, president and CEO of Time Warner Cable; Chase Carey, president and COO of News Corporation; Tom Rutledge, COO, Cablevision; Joe Uva, president and CEO, Univision; and Charles Segars, CEO of Ovation.
The hearing was prompted in part by the retrans impasse between News Corp. and Cablevision, and also by the retrans reform bill drafted by Subcommittee hearing Chairman John Kerry (D-Mass.), its itself party a reaction to Fox/Cablevision.
The FCC currently has in front of it a petition by Time Warner Cable and others to reform its retrans oversight, but has not taken action beyong collecting public comment on the issue.
Both the Kerry bil and the petition focus on outside arbitration and keeping TV stations on cable systems during retrans impasses.
FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski supports a congressional review, saying the FCC currently has limited powers to step in.
