The already existing dispute between broadcasters and cable and pay-television providers over whether TV station owners can yank their channels during periodic fee disputes was further investigated by the Federal Communications Commission, this Friday.

The reviews of the general public were sought after by the FCC about whether it should think about retransmission consent rules to avert fee disputes from ensuing blackouts of popular channels.

The agency is only considering the ideas and is in no mood to change the rules. Some of the pay-TV operators including Dish Network, Time Warner Cable Inc., Verizon Communications Inc., and Charter Communications, who asked FCC to change its rules for negotiating the disputes. More broadcasters are seeking higher fees for their signals. They should be prevented by the regulators from pulling their channels when the negotiation is going on.

Broadcasters opine that disputes are private negotiations; hence regulators should not poke their nose into them.