Senate Commerce Okays Grandfathering JSAs

UPDATE 12:30pm 6/25/15: A Senate bill that would exempt TV stations in current joint sales agreements from being forced to unwind the deals under a new Federal Communications Commission rule, was Thursday morning voted out of the commerce committee 14-10.

But the bill, authored by Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.), is not out of the woods yet.While Democrats agreed with the bill’s intent to make sure the current FCC honors JSA deals approved under prior FCC, they also worried that the bill was “too broad.”

Sens. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) and Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) offered amendments that would prohibit JSA deals from existing in perpetuity. Although the Senators withdrew the amendments, allowing the bill to advance, the Senators will try and work with the bill’s author Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) to put additional “safeguards” in place  before the bill goes to the floor.

The committee debate over the bill reignited a familiar policy debate about media ownership and diversity.

Earlier posting....

TV Broadcasters in joint sales agreements may get some relief from a Federal Communications Commission rule passed last year that would force many TV stations to unwind deals that were previously approved by the agency.

According to katyonthehill.com, on Thursday, the Senate commerce committee is expected to vote on a bill that would grandfather existing JSAs already in place when the FCC voted along party lines in March 2014 to attribute ownership limitations to any JSA where one station sells more than 15 percent of the advertising time of another station in the same market.

Most of the JSAs are in smaller markets where stations don’t have big-market resources, helping many TV stations to survive and provide local news.

“Joint Sales Agreements in Missouri and across the country have helped save TV stations from going dark, increased program diversity, and enabled local news programming for many TV broadcasters,” said Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.), who introduced the bill.