About the Author(s)

President and Founder

Geoffrey A. Manne is president and founder of the International Center for Law and Economics (ICLE), a distinguished fellow at Northwestern University’s Center on Law, Business, and Economics, and a visiting professor of law at IE University, Madrid.

Ben Sperry

Senior Scholar, Innovation Policy

Ben Sperry is senior scholar of innovation policy with ICLE.

Ryan Radia

Ryan Radia is research fellow and regulatory counsel with the Competitive Enterprise Institute.

Berin Szoka

Berin Szóka is the president and founder of TechFreedom.

Tom Struble

Tom Struble is a Legal Advisor at the Federal Communications Commission's Office of Engineering and Technology.

Related Research Programs

Telecommunications

Comments, In the Matter of Promoting Innovation and Competition in the Provision of Multichannel Video Programming Distribution Services

Geoffrey A. Manne, Ben Sperry, Ryan Radia, Berin Szoka, & Tom Struble March 3, 2015

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Summary

In this proceeding, the Commission proposes to expand the definition of a multichannel video programming distributor (MVPD) to encompass “subscription linear” online video distributors (OVDs), defined as services that make “multiple streams of prescheduled video programming available for purchase” over the Internet. We believe this proposal is unwise as a policy matter and incorrect as a matter of statutory interpretation. Instead, we urge the Commission to affirm the Media Bureau’s Transmission Path Interpretation, which holds that an MVPD
must “own or operate the facilities for delivering content to consumers.” We contend that this is the only permissible construction of the term MVPD as used in the Communications Act.