• by David Goetzl  @dgoetzl, May 10, 2010

A decade ago, the Big Four networks felt the National Association of Broadcasters wasn't lobbying effectively enough on issues such as station ownership caps. So they simply withdrew from the trade group. On Monday, CBS Corp. and Fox Broadcasting said they were returning. And now all are back, completing a process that began when ABC returned in 2005.

The principal issue that pushed them away, starting in 1999, is largely off the table. But each has an interest now in matters such as a possible congressional crackdown on the retransmission consent payments they are receiving.

Back in 1999, the government prevented networks from owning a collective of stations covering more than 35% of the country. The Big Four wanted that increased and apparently felt the NAB wasn't pushing hard enough.

Fox left the NAB in 1999, followed by CBS in 2001. ABC and NBC followed.

Ultimately in 2004, Congress passed a law raising the cap to 39%, which allowed Fox and CBS (then part of Viacom) to keep their full complement of owned-and-operated (O&O) stations and avoid divestitures.

ABC returned to the NAB in 2005, followed by NBC in 2007. Fox and CBS rejoining now gives the NAB, under new head Gordon Smith, more ballast as it works the halls of Washington. The networks all along have retained their own separate Washington representation.

CBS' 29 TV stations and 130 radio stations, and Fox's 27 owned-and-operated TV outlets (which include some MyNetworkTV stations), are now represented by the trade group. CBS executive Martin Franks and Fox's Jack Abernethy will join the NAB's board.

Networks could be facing a battle in Congress over retrans payments. Leveraging their popular programming, at least CBS, ABC and Fox have been able to command hefty payments from multichannel video distributors for rights to carry their O&Os.

Distributors believe that since stations have received government licenses to use the public airwaves, they should not be able to charge them to offer their stations. A dispute between Cablevision and ABC earlier this year almost caused New York viewers to miss the Oscar broadcast.

Following another dispute in January, the CEO of cable operator Mediacom, Rocco Commisso, wrote a letter to Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry, who has weighed in on the matter, stating: "If consumers are to be protected in the long run, not just for a period of weeks or months, it is essential that the existing retransmission consent rules be thoroughly examined and reformed ... regulatory inertia, together with lax enforcement of media ownership rules, has opened the door for the abuses that we are now seeing and will see in the future if nothing is done."

NBC has a matter before Congress and other government entities as its parent NBC Universal and Comcast are looking to consummate a proposed merger. In a recent hearing, Minnesota Sen. Al Franken, a Democrat, said he did not trust that a combined Comcast-NBCU would not use its muscle to unfairly take advantage of its size.

"As the media landscape evolves ever more rapidly, over-the-air broadcasting faces a number of clear opportunities and some significant challenges," stated Franks, who is a CBS executive vice president. "One of the very best ways to address these issues is through a resurgent NAB under Gordon Smith's leadership. We look forward to adding CBS' voice to NAB's efforts to preserve and enhance broadcasting on behalf of the public we serve."

Smith is a former Republican senator from Oregon; some call him a moderate.