science

Retransmission consent

Retransmission consent is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Retransmission consent rather than just read about it. In short: Retransmission consent is a provision of the 1992 United States Cable Television Consumer Protection and Competition Act that requires cable operators and other multichannel video programming distributors (MVPDs) to obtain permission from commercial broadcasters before carrying their programming. Under the provision, a broadcast station (or its affiliated/parent broadcast network) can ask for monetary payment or oth…

Key takeaways

Retransmission consent belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Retransmission consent to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Retransmission consent from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Retransmission consent is a provision of the 1992 United States Cable Television Consumer Protection and Competition Act that requires cable operators and other multichannel video programming distributors (MVPDs) to obtain permission from commercial broadcasters before carrying their programming. Under the provision, a broadcast station (or its affiliated/parent broadcast network) can ask for monetary payment or other compensation, such as carriage of an additional channel. If the cable operator rejects the broadcaster's proposal, the station can prohibit the cable operator from retransmitting its signal. In the United States, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) regulates this area of business and public policy pursuant to 47 U.S.C. Part II.

History Since the 1960s, the Federal Communications Commission had established must-carry rules, which required cable television operators to carry all significantly viewed local stations. In 1985 and 1987, the judiciary decided that the must-carry rules were in violation of the First Amendment rights of the cable operators. In response, the Congress passed the 1992 Cable Act, which established a combination of must-carry and retransmission consent provisions. Stations were given the right to either require cable operators to carry their signal at no cost, or negotiate with cable operators for carriage fees that the latter could refuse. Initially, cable carriers' reaction was to refuse to pay for broadcast programming. John Malone, head of cable giant TeleCommunications Inc. refused to pay to carry broadcasters' content saying, "I don't intend to pay any money ... I will scratch backs." Instead of monetary payment, some broadcast networks agreed to distribute secondary channels. America's Talking (now MSNBC), FX, and ESPN2 all originated through retransmission consent deals in the early 1990s. Many PBS stations received additional local channels. However, in the mid-2000s, the stations succeeded in earning carriage fees from cable/satellite systems.

Legislative history Legislation governing the retransmission of broadcast television content by satellite companies is required to be renewed on a regular basis. As of 2018, the legislation has been enacted four times. These acts renewed statutory licenses that allow satellite TV companies to retransmit broadcast stations to their customers:

1999: Satellite Home Viewer Improvement Act 2004: Satellite Home Viewer Extension and Reauthorization Act 2010: Satellite Television Extension and Localism Act 2014: STELA Reauthorization Act

Debate Retransmission consent has drawn criticism from the cable operators who redistribute programming, and therefore must seek consent from the broadcasters for their program content. Cable programmers have argued that there is a "shift in leverage toward broadcasters" within the market since introduction of retransmission compensation. Broadcasters typically claim that the programming they provide costs money, and these retransmission fees allow them to provide this expensive programming. Further, the Cable Act created retransmission consent in order to fix a market imbalance and the marketplace and contract disputes should be addressed in the marketplace.

Programming disruptions Cable operators typically claim during a carriage dispute that the broadcasters are forcing the viewing public to pay for content that is essentially given away for free to those who use an antenna to receive the station.

Alternatively, broadcasters have argued that the free market approach discourages carriage disputes. In a 2013 op-ed, former FCC commissioner, Robert McDowell, argued:TV stations make more money as more people see their shows, thus creating an incentive to distribute their product as widely as possible. These same market forces also create a disincentive for broadcasters to withhold their signals from distributors like cable and satellite companies.

See also Carriage dispute Fee-for-carriage - a similar proposed policy supported by broadcasters in Canada Must-carry Significantly viewed

References

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Retransmission consent

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Retransmission consent claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Retransmission consent before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Retransmission consent ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Retransmission consent

In research: Retransmission consent appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Retransmission consent in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Retransmission consent is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Broadcast law, Cable television in the United States, Television controversies in the United States, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Retransmission consent outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Retransmission consent in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Retransmission consent means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Retransmission consent out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Retransmission consent in simple terms?

Why does Retransmission consent matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Retransmission consent?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Retransmission consent.