Jeff Westling Quoted in Politico on FCC Broadcast Regulations
A recent Politico article discusses FCC Chair Brendan Carr’s proposals to modify the terms of private affiliate agreements between local television stations and national networks. ICLE Senior Scholar of Innovation Policy Jeff Westling gave his thoughts about the risks of these regulatory actions, noting that strict interventions could prompt networks to abandon traditional broadcasting in favor of streaming services. Read the full piece here.
“I think what he probably is trying to do is influence some of the behavior,” said Jeff Westling, a senior scholar of innovation policy at the International Center for Law & Economics think tank and former legal fellow in Carr’s office. “Just use some of that jawboning style to get the outcomes that he wants.”
Still, Westling said Carr should be careful about complicating the terms of private affiliate agreements — a road that could risk unraveling key parts of broadcast TV.
“I just worry that if you impose some of those onerous restrictions on them,” he added, “you really try to meddle with it, you’re going to get to a point where the networks are just like: ‘Well, why don’t we just bypass broadcast entirely? We’re not getting that much viewership from it anymore. We can transition a lot of these folks to our streaming service.’”