Kristian Stout on vMVPDs

Law360 – ICLE Director of Innovation Policy Kristian Stout was cited extensively by Law360 in a story about his recent Truth on the Market post about proposals for the Federal Communications Commission to revive rulemaking to impose cable television rules on some internet video services. You can read full piece here.

The International Center for Law & Economics is wading into the public debate over whether certain streamers should be regulated like traditional video service providers, warning the Federal Communications Commission that heaping regulations meant for other businesses upon streaming services is a bad idea.

A scholar from the free market-promoting think tank — which has called the current federal government “hostile” to mergers — penned a thinkpiece published Tuesday urging the agency not to reopen a 2014 proceeding that would have made streamers known as virtual multichannel video programming distributors subject to regulations made for traditional MVPDs, which include cable and satellite TV providers.

“[G]iven that the FCC will already have a plate full of difficult docket items, it should continue to avoid a further landmine that some advocates have been pressing to take up this year,” Kristian Stout of the ICLE said of potentially reopening the 2014 proceeding.