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Shot Fired Across FCC Boss’ Bow on Cable

Nov 19, 2007  •  Post A Comment

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Kevin Martin’s push to define the cable market in ways that would let him regulate it more actively hit a stumbling block today when one of the agency commissioners said he wouldn’t go along.
FCC Commissioner Robert M. McDowell today said he would refuse to approve any agency report that says cable reaches 70% of U.S. households, the threshold needed for Mr. Martin to exert more power over cable operators. That signals that the commission’s Democrat minority is unlikely to go along with the chairman’s plan.
Mr. McDowell told reporters at a Media Institute event that the 70% limit may not have been reached, based on industry estimates that 2 million fewer customers are getting TV from cable, and that satellite TV has picked up 1.7 million viewers. Phone company video service is approaching 1 million, he said.
The FCC has been preparing a report that describes the state of competition for cable services. FCC officials have confirmed that the report as drafted says that cable is now available to 70% of households nationally and is seen by 70% of households—a so called 70/70 test. Once cable passes the 70% mark, the FCC gets some additional authority over cable that it can use to require cable providers offer more access to channels they don’t own.
Mr. Martin at a meeting Nov. 27 is expected to offer the report, perhaps along with recommendations for limits.
Mr. McDowell and fellow commissioner Deborah Taylor Tate last week questioned the numbers used in the still-unpublished report, saying they came from a Warren Communications survey.
Today in the speech, Mr. McDowell went farther, saying the communications company now says it didn’t intend for the numbers to be used as they have been. Those new cautions about how the statistics were derived, together with other information, raise questions about the statistics’ accuracy, Mr. McDowell said.
Mr. McDowell said he would not approve a report that included a determination that the cable industry has exceeded the 70% level. If Ms. Tate went along with him, it would require Mr. Martin to get support from Democratic commissioners Michael J. Copps and Jonathan Adelstein to issue the study.
(Editor: Baumann)

5 Comments

  1. I guess it depends on the verbiage, but although cable is “available” to over 95% of the country (“homes passed”), only 61% of the US is actually hooked up to “wired cable.” That’s according to Nielsen for the 07/08 season.

  2. Chairman Martin is absolutely correct. The influence of cable on broadcasting is dominant, if not downright terroristic. The leased channel provision absolutely, positively, HAS to be revisited, even though the only survivors in the industry 10 years from now will be Comcast, Time Warner, Charter and Suddenlink. The telcos’ behavior to date has been far more responsible.

  3. Chairman Martin is absolutely correct. The influence of cable on broadcasting is dominant, if not downright terroristic. The leased channel provision absolutely, positively, HAS to be revisited, even though the only survivors in the industry 10 years from now will be Comcast, Time Warner, Charter and Suddenlink. The telcos’ behavior to date has been far more responsible.

  4. “Chairman Martin” remarkably resembles “Chairman Mao”. “Terroristic”? Big Brother obviously arrived a very long time ago. What puts terror into me is people like RJDickens actually thinking as he does. Whatever happened to the good ol’ capitalistic mantra, “If you don’t like it, turn it off”?
    Furthermore, it’s not a numbers issue, it’s a rights issue. Since when is there a 70% threshold limit on free speech? The entire discussion is preposterous.

  5. Quote “Whatever happened to the good ol’ capitalistic mantra, “If you don’t like it, turn it off”?
    Well, that is an asinine statement. What about those of us that can’t get over-the-air TV? The
    only way is through cable or Direct TV/Dish.
    R.J. Dickens was absolutely correct in his comments.

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