Rep. Scalise Reintroduces Video Reform Bill

On December 12^th 2013, Rep. Steve Scalise (R-La.) reintroduced his video reform bill called the Next Generation Television Marketplace Act. This bill would help in removing barriers to competition that exist with the outdated regulation in place right now.

According the press release on his website, the bill would:

"Repeal those provisions of the Communications Act that mandate the carriage and purchase of certain broadcast signals by cable operators, satellite providers, and their customers."

"Repeal the Communications Act’s retransmission consent' provisions and the Copyright Act’s compulsory license provisions, thereby allowing negotiations for the carriage of broadcast stations to take place in the same deregulated environment as negotiations for carriage of non-broadcast channels such as Discovery, Food Network, and AMC.”

"Repeal ownership limitations imposed on local media operators, allowing businesses to evolve and adapt to today’s dynamic communications market."

Rep. Steve Scalise (R-La.) and Senator Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) initially introduced this bill in 2011 as a way to revise the outdated Cable Act of 1992 and tailor it to fit the needs of the modern consumer. The Next Generation Television Marketplace Act would remove government interference from what should exist as a free market among those in the video service industry. This new bill will still protect the intellectual property rights of the copy right holders but will simultaneously create an environment that doesn’t just favor one technology but rather one that is unbiased and supports all new media technology.

While made with good intention, the regulations, when applied to the current marketplace, do not provide an environment conducive to competition. Regulatory policy only can be functional if it can be considered relevant to what is being regulated. Addressing the idea of repealing the outdated regulations Senator DeMint said “If we want to encourage innovation, job creation, and consumer benefits, we need to stop issuing new regulations and instead remove and modernize rules written to address the last century's business and regulatory models.”