WASHINGTON, D.C.—In response to a complaint filed by Comcast Cable Communications against Nexstar and Mission Broadcasting regarding retransmission negotiations for WPIX, the FCC Media Bureau is proposing a forfeiture of $150,000 from Mission Broadcasting.
Comcast filed an informal complaint in December 2022 against Nexstar Media Group, Inc. and Mission Broadcasting, Inc. for Failure to Negotiate Retransmission Consent in Good Faith, MB Docket No. 22-443.
"Among other allegations, Comcast asserts that Mission, licensee of New York, NY television station WPIX, breached its statutory duty to negotiate in good faith," the FCC said. "Comcast claims that Mission did so by conditioning retransmission consent on Comcast’s acceptance of contract proposals that were presumptively inconsistent with competitive marketplace considerations because they would foreclose the filing of future complaints with the Commission."
In a Jan. 16 order the FCC ruled that “Comcast has satisfied its burden of proof with respect to Mission’s failure to negotiate in good faith. We, therefore, grant the Complaint, in part, and propose a forfeiture of $150,000 against Mission, licensee of WPIX.”
The FCC stressed, however, it was addressing “only a subset of the allegations against Mission, the licensee of WPIX,” and are not addressing “any of the allegations against Nexstar, which represented WPIX and Mission in the negotiations with Comcast. The remaining allegations are under review by the Commission pending the outcome of ongoing investigations.”
While the FCC did not rule on the allegations against Nexstar it found that "Nexstar does not dispute that it made the proposals identified by Comcast when negotiating as the representative of WPIX, or that those proposals would have foreclosed the filing of certain complaints with the Commission," which the FCC said is inconsistent with the requirement to negotiate in good faith.
The FCC also rejected Nexstar's argument that it did not violate the Good Faith provisions. "As noted, the Good Faith Order plainly states that “proposals for contract terms that would foreclose the filing of complaints [and] are presumptively at odds with the good faith negotiation requirement," the Order noted.
The FCC ordered that Mission has 30 days to pay the forfeiture or file a written statement seeking to reduce or eliminate it.
