Charles Segars Testimony to U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, Nov. 17, 2010

"TELEVISION V IEW E R S, R E TRANSMISSION CONSENT , AND T HE P U BLIC INTER E ST " T es t imony before the Senate Subcommittee on Communi ations, Tec hnol og y and th e Internet by Charle s Se g ars , CEO , Ovation Mr. Chairman and committe e members , on behalf of Ovation, th e only national television netwo r k dedicated to Arts and Culture in America, thank you for inviting us to testify toda y . y name is Charles Segars. I am the CEO of Ovation, a viable , independently owned elevision net ork that has earned carriage to 43 million homes, and is paid a fair, market-based rate from d i stributors who are committed to providing a unique programming ser v ice to their customers. The y include: Time Warner Ca le , DirecTV , Verizon FiOS, Dish, Charter Communications and Comcast Cable, who, as I speak with y ou toda y, continues our roll out . Mr. Chairman , the detrimental effect of retransmission conse t threatens the ver y e x istenc e of independent net w orks like O v ation. I am here support i ng reform of these regulations to ensure consumer s ha v e acces s to a diversit y of voices on televisi on . Senator Kerr y , in a recent editorial y ou quite aptl y pointed out that the old rules are outdated and to continue w ith the s tatu s quo i s bad for consumers , competition and demo cr at ic participat ion. As an independe nt progra mmer , tr y ing to remain competitive, y our words ring true. Thi s regulator y structure re s tricts our abilit y to grow our di s tribution , main ain fair s ub s criber fee s comparable to those of other networks , and r e inve t tho s e fee s into local and national arts programming for an under-served con s umer . Retransmis s ion ha s e nabl ed primaril y the largest broadcast companies to bundle an excess of chan nels , eating up v aluable bandwidth and taki g more than their fair s har of fee s that would otherwise be a v ailable in a free market sys tem. Seated here amongst the se media e xecutives, I full y grasp the meaning of the phrase "between a rock and a hard place. " It is illustrative of the predicament that Ovation and all independent programmers find themselves in toda y . On one side is an extraordi na ril y well-operated, ve rt icall y integrated media compan y, who , like most since 1992, astutel y

Charles Segars Testimony to U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, Nov. 17, 2010

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