Insiders indicate that the Federal Communications Commission is presently considering the introduction of new regulations for companies that provide subscription video services via the Internet. The FCC is reportedly looking at whether online providers should be regulated the same as traditional cable and satellite companies — or multichannel video program distributors. The move could affect those companies that are planning to launch OTT online video services in the future.

“If the FCC adopts such regulations, it would mean that an online provider would have the same ability to negotiate for carriage of local broadcast TV stations that cable and satellite TV providers have,” reports The Wall Street Journal. “It could also make it harder for a distributor that owns TV channels — such as Comcast Corp. — to refuse to license them to an online service.”

Sony, Dish and Verizon are among those planning to launch online video services in an effort to reach consumers who have walked away from traditional pay TV subscriptions.

The changes would not apply to streaming services such as Netflix, Hulu or Amazon since they provide video content on demand rather than traditional TV channels.

There are different opinions within the industry regarding the regulation of Web-based services. Comcast, for example, argued against regulations in 2012, while DirecTV “countered that if an online video player is going to act like a cable or satellite company, it should be regulated the same way,” notes WSJ.

Although the FCC has yet to officially comment, a representative speaking on background to Multichannel News confirmed that the proposal involves adopting a technology neutral definition of an MVPD.

“That would mean reversing a tentative, bureau-level conclusion in the Sky Angel program-access complaint that having a facilities-based transmission path was necessary to be an MVPD,” explains the article. “The FCC tentatively concluded that an MVPD has to have control of both the content and the transmission path — copper, fiber, satellite signals to be delivering a channel — and that an OVD distributor lacks that path since it does not control a facilities-based channel to deliver it.”