FCC Publishes Rulemaking on Program Access Rules

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC or Commission) released a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (Notice) seeking comment on (1) whether to retain, relax, or sunset the prohibition on exclusive contracts between cable operators and satellite-delivered, cable-affiliated programmers; and (2) whether there should be potential revisions to its program access rules to better address alleged violations, including potentially discriminatory volume discounts and uniform price increases. The program access rules are designed to ensure competitive multichannel video programming distributors (MVPDs) have access to programming affiliated with cable operators. Comments are due on or before June 22, 2012, and Reply Comments on or before July 23, 2012.