After A Great First Year, the Streaming Innovation Alliance Looks Forward

One year ago this week, the Streaming Innovation Alliance launched, filling a gap recognized by Axios which observed that “Streamers have never had a unified voice in Washington” before SIA. MPA Chairman Charles Rivkin who played a lead role organizing the new coalition, celebrated the launch and pledged that SIA would “work to ensure federal and state policy propels this incredible innovation forward – and doesn’t undermine the value and diversity consumers are enjoying today.”

 

And that’s exactly what we’ve spent the last year doing.

 

Our launch was accompanied by the release of an independent poll announcing that today seven in ten voters view streaming favorably or very favorably, with even higher support among Millennials, Gen Z and across communities of color. That benchmark still stands as a beacon to state and federal policymakers considering action that would impact streaming’s landscape:  let’s work together to ensure legislative and regulatory proposals move streaming forward and build on what consumers value.

 

We’re proud SIA counts former Acting FCC Chairwoman Mignon Clyburn and former House Energy & Commerce Committee Chairman Rep. Fred Upton as senior advisors. They bring decades of leadership experience on tech and content issues to our coalition – and we have relied on that experience to thoughtfully warn policymakers against ill-advised proposals to regulate streaming like cable or tax it like telecom.

 

We’ve been thought leaders, actively explaining the role of streaming in the broader entertainment ecosystem and aggressively stepping into relevant policy debates where the experience of our broad, diverse membership including more than a dozen small and independent services is vital. We’ve placed or published multiple op-eds, interviews, and policy briefs explaining the issues and SIA’s approach to them. 

 

And we’ve engaged directly in the policy process at both the state and federal level – filing comments at the NTIA on social media regulation, briefing the House Energy and Commerce Committee on the fast-moving issue of streaming and sports, and supporting the successful effort in Missouri to establish clear state policy against taxing digital services. In multiple jurisdictions, we have led robust campaigns with allies and partners to educate policymakers on the dangers of regressive new taxes on video streaming that would drive up consumer prices and drag down availability of quality, diverse programming for historically underserved and underrepresented communities. In Vermont, for example, Founder and CEO of SIA Member AfroLandTV Michael Maponga penned a personal op-ed explaining the hardship a proposed new streaming tax would cause to small streamers serving diverse communities just weeks before the governor and state legislature changed course and put the brakes on what had been a fast moving proposal.

 

Our members have been active participants in SIA’s work, speaking up in spotlight profiles emphasizing the varied companies and business models in our ranks and coming together in Washington for a highly successful March Madness themed “Meet the Streamers” event held at MPA’s landmark Washington headquarters. There’s no better sign of SIA’s vitality and dynamic, engaged member-driven approach than our addition of six diverse new members in June 2024, bringing us up to 24 members today. 
 

And we’re only getting started.

 

In our second year, SIA will be everywhere that streaming is threatened – especially in state and local jurisdictions where harmful, regressive, and often illegal streaming tax proposals would put diversity, choice, and consumer pocketbooks at risk. We plan to commission and release vital new economic research to explain the dangers and costs local communities face from these poorly thought out ideas.

 

We are investing in legal capabilities to give our members a voice everywhere streaming policy is made – including by supporting litigants in significant/first impression cases that can establish streaming policy just as much as any legislative vote.

 

We will hold more events starting with an upcoming Capitol Hill briefing on the technology, innovation, and entrepreneurship that makes the modern streaming ecosystem go.

 

And we will stay aggressive, active, engaged, and out front of emerging issues and debates – just as we have been since the first press release dropped announcing SIA’s entry on the advocacy field.

 

SIA is member-powered. We are grateful to the time and energy each of our members have put in to allow us to accomplish so much this past year. And we look forward to continued growth and expansion as streaming continues to thrive.

 

Greg Saphier is Senior Vice President, Head of Public Affairs at MPA.