Company: GHC
Filing Date: 2025-02-26
Form Type: 10-K
Source: 0000104889-25-000022
Chunk: 159

Company: Graham Holdings Co
Filing Date: 2025-02-26
Form: 10-K
Item: Item 1
Chunk 159
---
 pursuant to retransmission consent agreements.

Statutory changes over the last several years have resulted in changes to certain FCC rules governing retransmission consent negotiations. Pursuant to the Television Viewer Protection Act, enacted on December 20, 2019, the FCC made changes to the “good faith” standards that govern retransmission consent negotiations, as a result of which “large station groups” (groups of television broadcast stations that have a national audience reach of more than 20%) are required to negotiate in good faith with MVPD “buying groups” (entities that negotiate on behalf of multiple small MVPDs). GMG does not qualify as a “large station group” under the statute and therefore is not subject to this obligation. While GMG does not anticipate that these rules will materially affect its bargaining position in retransmission consent negotiations, if Congress or the FCC were to enact further changes to the retransmission consent rules (such as by requiring small station groups like GMG to negotiate with MVPD buying groups, mandating continued carriage of a station’s signal by an MVPD during a retransmission consent dispute, or otherwise giving MVPDs heightened bargaining power), such changes could have a material effect on GMG’s retransmission consent revenues.

In 2014, the FCC opened a proceeding to consider whether certain vMVPDs should be classified as MVPDs and thus subject to the retransmission consent rules. More than 10 years later, the FCC has taken no action in that proceeding, despite broadcasters’ sustained advocacy efforts. Because the retransmission consent rules at present do not apply to vMVPDs such as YouTube TV, Hulu + Live TV, FuboTV, and DIRECTV Stream, the national broadcast networks negotiate agreements with vMVPDs that are presented to their affiliates as “opt-in” agreements, and local affiliates of the broadcast networks are unable to negotiate directly with vMVPDs to reach agreements for the carriage of their signals. Unless the FCC enacts rules (or Congress enacts legislation) that classify vMVPDs as MVPDs subject to the retransmission consent rules, GMG may be unable to negotiate carriage agreements with these distribution services that include the payment of market-based retransmission fees. At the same time, broadcasters have no “must carry” rights with respect to vMVPDs and thus often cannot secure carriage of non-network-affiliated commercial television stations on vMVPD platforms. As one example, WJXT-TV is not carried on Hulu + Live TV