Federal Communications Commission	"FCC  XX-XXX"


DISSENTING STATEMENT OF
COMMISSIONER BRENDAN CARR

Re:	Customer Rebates for Undelivered Video Programming During Blackouts, MB Docket No. 24-20, Notice of Proposed Rulemaking. 

At President Biden’s urging, the FCC launched a proceeding last month to regulate certain fees (or rates) charged by cable and DBS providers—even though today those providers are far from 800 pound gorillas when it comes to the modern video marketplace.  I dissented from that decision because I cannot support the Biden Administration’s inexorable march towards rate regulation and because the FCC plainly does not have the legal authority to impose those forms of rate regulation.  Indeed, the FCC purported to ground the decision in a statutory provision that Congress passed to address customer service issues, like wait times on calls to service centers, not rate regulation.

Today, the FCC heads right back down this same path—proposing to impose another form of rate regulation using the agency’s limited authority to regulate customer service issues.  And once again, this action comes at a time when consumer choice has never been greater and traditional MVPDs are bleeding market share to new, unregulated competitors.   

I cannot support this effort.  Accordingly, I dissent.
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