It’s shaping up to be one of the more contentious issues facing broadcast television station owners on Capitol Hill: fair compensation from virtual Multichannel Video Programming Distributors through the extension of current retransmission content rules to such services.
For companies such as Gray Television, getting more dollars from vMVPDs is vital to their future. In contrast, vMVPDs and the cable television industry is dead-set against the idea. However, some resolution will be needed. If not, an increase in possible “blackouts” such as the one impacting a Gray property in Phoenix could raise the ire of consumers — in particular sports fans now turning to over-the-air stations to enjoy play-by-play coverage.
