Additional Legislative And Legal Accomplishments
Tom Meek of TVCCS was directly involved in three critical pieces of legislation/court cases affecting the future of local broadcast television in the United States. These cases/legislation are the “three-legged stool” that have served as the foundation allowing local broadcast television in the U.S. to survive and prosper well into the 21st century.
First, Meek was directly involved in lobbying efforts to pass the Satellite Home Viewer Act of 1988 (SHVA), H.R. 2848. Prior to the passage of SHVA, satellite television carriers and some cable companies attempted to bypass local television stations and distribute network programming via out-of-market imported broadcast affiliates. After Meek developed a ratings study for his local television station WOFL-TV (Orlando) quantifying just how severe WOFL-TV local viewership losses were when identical programming was aired on superstation WGN-TV (Chicago) to then-INTV President Preston Padden, Padden asked Meek to come to Washington to walk the study across Congress and demonstrate the harm duplicate programming caused local television stations over a two-week period in 1988.
SHVA was stalled in the US House Of Representatives by Representative Mike Synar (D-OK) who represented Tulsa, home of United Video, satellite distributor of WGN-TV, at that time one of the most watched satellite/cable programming services nationwide. Padden and Meek gained an audience with Rep. Synar at his congressional office after pressure from committee chairman Rep. Al Swift (D-WA), and after that meeting Synar allowed the legislation to go forward. Synar's staff later commented to Meek that "we looked for every way possible to discredit your study and couldn't find any, so we chose to step aside."
The passage of SHVA marked the beginning of local broadcast television stations' ability to secure copyright protection for their programming in satellite and cable distribution and control their copyrighted programming's distribution in their local television markets, as well as seeking compensation for the first time for the paid retransmission of local broadcast signals via satellite and cable.
Congressional Record of H.R. 2848 (1988)
Then, in 1989, Tom Meek became directly involved with United Video, Inc. vs. FCC, the satellite superstation case involving United Video's right to distribute WGN-TV nationwide without regard as to whether its programming duplicated and infringed upon the copyright and distribution agreements of local television stations in their home markets (usually referred to as syndicated exclusivity or “Syndex”). United Video and WGN-TV had up until that point been able to successfully argue that no evidence of harm had been shown of the effects of WGN-TV's programming distribution on local television affiliates, and Tribune Company, owner of WGN-TV, had been able to leverage its position with major program syndicators as the largest owner of large-market independent television stations to deny other local stations exclusive local rights to leading syndicated programming.
Meek originally presented a study at a 1989 FCC Brown Bag Luncheon in Washington discussing the United case which showed considerable harm to WOFL-TV, Orlando from duplicated syndicated programming from WGN-TV in the critical 7-8PM programming hour. The presentation led to a public dispute between Meek and WGN-TV president Dennis Fitzsimons which was aired in an article in television programming magazine "View", which published an article about Meek entitled “The Number Cruncher That Roared”.
Meredith Corporation, owner of WOFL-TV, subsequently submitted Meek's research to the Court Of Appeals For The District Of Columbia which was hearing an appeal from broadcasters to a prior decision in favor of United Video and Tribune. The DC Court of Appeals reversed the lower court decision in a decisive 3-0 verdict, an opinion considered to be solid enough that no further appeal from United was forthcoming. The United Video case also had the effect of allowing broadcasters a better chance of competing with Tribune for exclusive local rights to syndicated programming, and affirmed the right to syndicated exclusivity (Syndex).
Finally, Tom Meek was directly involved in the passage of the The Cable Television Consumer Protection and Competition Act of 1992, which for the first time provided local broadcast stations the right to negotiate with cable systems for either compensation for carriage (retransmission consent), or guaranteed carriage without compensation (must-carry). Meek had for several years been in communication with FCC staff, trade organizations, and broadcast networks about various issues surrounding cable carriage of local broadcast stations, advising them of various issues that he had found across the country after beginning his consulting business (TVCCS) in 1987. Meek had become familiar with the compensation local cable systems had begun paying for cable programming including ESPN, WTBS, and WGN, and began comparing audience viewing data (ratings) in cable homes from the Orlando market with cable home viewing of broadcast television stations, finding the local stations often achieved a multiple of several times the average viewership of even the most popular cable programming services. That in turn led him to estimate the comparative value per subscriber of local broadcasters to local cable systems, providing a factual ratings-based formula basis to suggest a potential negotiated fee for distribution of local broadcast stations via cable.
Meek first publicly spoke of the idea of cable systems paying to distribute local broadcast signals to a national meeting of Cox Cable system managers in April, 1990 in Atlanta, drawing a mix of mostly laughter and bemusement from the several hundred Cox employees in attendance. However, by 1991 Meek's research was known to the major broadcast trade organizations and networks, and was used to help formulate the The Cable Television Consumer Protection and Competition Act of 1992.
Meek had developed relationships with House leadership staff responsible for communications policy during 1989 and 1990 in producing a series of seminars on broadcast/cable issues across the United States for the NATPE Educational Foundation. He subsequently contacted those staff and local representatives regarding the passage of the Cable Act of 1992, and specifically asked for and received support from a Central Florida House member of Republican leadership via Rep. Bill McCollum (R-FL), otherwise known as a Bush loyalist, who in turn helped steer the vote through Congress. The Cable Act was eventually passed in September of 1992, was vetoed by then-President George W. Bush in October, and subsequently overridden by both the House and Senate two days later to become law. The Cable Act's ultimate passage was the only time George W. Bush had a veto overridden during his term in office.
Congress.gov Record Of Cable Television Consumer Protection and Competition Act of 1992