John Kerry responds to the Cablevision/Fox fiasco

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Broadcasting & Cable reports that Senator John Kerry (D-MA) stated that more government intervention is needed to prevent future fiascos and to protect consumers.

Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) said Sunday he was "happy and relieved" that Cablevision and Fox had struck a carriage deal Saturday, but that he still thought the government needs to step in to protect consumers.

Kerry has proposed legislation to that effect, and signaled that he still thinks it is necessary. While he said that media interests have every right to play hardball, he also suggested that government needed to step in anyway to protect consumers from being collateral damage in what he called "frequent games of high stakes chicken."

Saying he didn't think it was in anyone's interest to have such retrans stalemates play out regularly, Kerry suggested that, "at a minimum, Congress can bring greater transparency to this process and empower consumers with more information, and work to disincentivize high stakes conflict." Cablevision lost access to Fox TV station signals for two weeks during the latest such standoff.