HolstonConnect, LLC files complaint against Nexstar Media Group, Inc. for violation of FCC’s rules requiring good faith negotiation of retransmission consent

Link to complaint in HolstonConnect, LLC v. Nexstar (public inspection copy)

 

PRESS RELEASE:

March 7, 2019

For Immediate Release

HolstonConnect, a subsidiary of Holston Electric Cooperative that aims to bring gigabit Internet to thousands of unserved residents in rural East Tennessee, has filed a Federal Communications Commission (FCC) retransmission consent complaint against Nexstar Media Group, currently one of the largest broadcast television companies in the United States.

In the March 4, 2019 complaint, HolstonConnect alleges that Nexstar violated FCC rules by failing to negotiate in good faith toward an agreement enabling HolstonConnect to deliver essential local broadcast TV content to HolstonConnect’s “triple play” customers.   HolstonConnect’s complaint states that Nexstar is demanding exorbitant rates and carriage of multiple unwanted channels while refusing to engage in,meaningful negotiations.

“Without prompt and forceful remedial action by the FCC, HolstonConnect’s ability to deploy gigabit infrastructure and services in rural East Tennessee will be hamstrung,” HolstonConnect told the FCC on Monday.

Holston Electric Cooperative’s CEO, Jimmy Sandlin, said, “When we asked for rate concessions that would put us at a level playing field with other operators in our market, Nexstar’s negotiator continued to demand significantly higher rates and said, ‘It’s just TV.’  To our customers and our community, access to high-speed broadband is a lot more than ‘just TV.’  This is critical infrastructure for our businesses and our residents.  Access to modern communications infrastructure is to rural America today what access to electricity was in the 1930s.”

Holston Electric Cooperative is headquartered in Rogersville, Tennessee, and currently serves approximately 30,500 customers with electricity in a territory that is rural and sparsely populated.  Its board approved plans to deploy a state of the art, “fiber to the home” communications network as an upgrade to its electric grid, and launched a communications company, HolstonConnect, to offer triple play services (video, voice, and Internet) to Holston Electric Cooperative’s entire service territory.  Holston’s service territory includes 10,000 customers who currently have no wireline access to high speed Internet.  HolstonConnect is a recipient of federal Connect America Fund Phase II funding, in support of its development of broadband infrastructure and services in the East Tennessee region.

 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

Jim Baller

Baller Stokes & Lide, P.C.

(202) 833-3301

jim@baller.com

 

Press Release: Correction to “Municipal Fiber in the United States: An Empirical Assessment of Financial Performance”

In a press release published on May 26, 2017, several days after the initial publication of “Municipal Fiber in the United States: An Empirical Assessment of Financial Performance,” the report’s authors acknowledge errors in reviewing the bond documents for several municipal fiber networks including:  Chattanooga, TN; Lafayette, LA; and Wilson, NC.

“The statements in the study characterizing these projects as requiring large balloon payments toward the end of the bond periods are thus inaccurate. The authors regret the error.”

View Press Release HERE

Municipal Fiber In the United States: An Empirical Assessment of Financial Performance

Study from Professor Yoo at the University of Pennsylvania analyzes cities’ ability to pay back bonds for municipal broadband networks.  Although concerns about the validity of some of the financial data used in the study have been raised, Professor Yoo has also acknowledged limitations of the study including short time span of data, emergence of new models and usage, state law restrictions’ significant financial impact on projects, economic development impact of municipal networks, etc.

Municipal Fiber In the United States: An Empirical Assessment of Financial Performance (published May 2017)