Current eMessage > Product > October 2020

Product Spotlight

With MACC, you’re ready for the TV Viewer Protection Act

by Lori Bayne, Customer Master Product Owner

MACC continues to strive to meet your telecommunication billing needs and provide seamless implementation of new FCC guidelines and regulations. On December 20th, 2019, the Television Viewer Protection Act of 2019 became law. The act imposes several restrictions on the way video and broadband providers advertise and bill for their services. These changes were scheduled to become effective on June 20th, 2020, but due to the national pandemic, the deadline was delayed six months. The law will now become effective on any bills generated on or after December 20th, 2020.

In order to comply with this act, we are making modifications to Customer Master versions 20.1.5 and 20.2.2 (late releases). In these releases, we will provide the ability to print the contract and promotion ending dates on the bills. New “Print in Information Section” indicators will be added to the USP codes, Bundles, and Contracts maintenance editors. This enhancement will allow for the ending dates to be printed on the bills. The new Information section will print on any tier on which the contract or promotion resides. For example, contracts will be displayed at the account level and USP, OCC, and Bundle charges will print on the appropriate account, customer, and network levels of the bills. Customer Master will provide these additional data elements each month in the transmit files for Bill Master.

Other portions of the act can be accommodated by Customer Master’s existing functionality: 

• Bundle display options printed on the bill
• Individual OCCs for billing equipment fees
• Breakouts of the taxes, surcharges, and fees on the bills
• Generation of an estimated bill for the end-user once you have completed and applied the service order and the contract is entered into and made effective

The act stipulates the eBill presentment and electronic bill formats must include itemization of the service charges. Since MACC’s eBills are PDF copies of the actual paper bills that would be generated, the needed details are already provided to meet this requirement.

Since we have a short timeframe to upgrade companies by the transmit dates for the January 1st billing, please make yourself familiar with these changes and be prepared for the necessary upgrades to be scheduled in a timely fashion to meet the guidelines. Potentially, you may have some data cleanup to complete at this time in order to provide the ending-date of the contacts and promotions. If you have any questions, please contact your MACC Client Relations Manager or Account Manager to discuss these new truth-in-billing presentation requirements for video and broadband services.