Washington — Nov 27, ‘07 — Federal Communications Commission Chairman Kevin Martin delayed a vote on a report that would give the agency more power over the cable television industry, signaling he may lack support to pass the measure.
Martin was forced to delay a 9:30 a.m. EST public meeting at which the commissioners were scheduled to vote on the issue. The meeting was postponed to give the five commissioners more time to reach agreement.
FCC members are deciding whether to vote later today on requiring cable companies to submit subscriber data for review, Martin said. The commission, which had been set to meet at 11 a.m., may still vote later on the competition report, he said
The draft report, backed by Martin, found cable companies such as leader Comcast Corp. control enough of the pay-TV market to warrant more oversight. More than 70 percent of U.S. households have access to at least 36 cable channels, and more than 70 percent of those homes subscribe to a service, the report showed.
Under U.S. law, that finding would give the agency more authority over companies such as Comcast and Time Warner Cable.
But the idea ran into resistance from Martin’s two fellow Republicans on the commission. They questioned the way Martin had arrived at the 70 percent figure, saying it conflicted with previous reports on the issue. The FCC’s two Democratic commissioners also had reservations.
Beyond doubts over the data, many Republicans, including lawmakers who have written to the FCC, have fundamental objections to imposing new federal regulations on an industry they say is competitive.
The two Democrats on the FCC, meanwhile, had come under pressure from consumer groups, who support Martin’s 70 percent finding and say previous estimates undercounted the number of cable subscribers.
Consumer advocates say the FCC should adopt rules to spur competition among pay-TV providers. The cable industry surpassed the 70/70 threshold as early as 2005, said Andrew Schwartzman, president of the Washington-based Media Access Project.
“The cable industry has been exercising monopoly power,” Schwartzman said yesterday in an interview. “Cable rates have been rising far in excess of inflation and it’s time to do something about it.”
The proposed compromise to collect more data from the cable operators “would be a reasonable step for the commission to take,” Martin said.
Martin has criticized the cable TV industry over steeply increasing rates, over programming that some viewers find offensive and its reluctance to let customers choose individual channels on an a la carte basis.
In his comments to reporters on Tuesday, Martin said he had not given up on the data he originally cited in the report, gleaned from a communications industry trade publisher, that put U.S. cable subscribership at 71.4 percent.
Feb 05, `08 — This Slashdot article highlights future of the Internet in the US. “Time-Warner is now mulling a plan to charge a per-gigabyte fee for internet service. A leaked memo reveals they’re now watching how many gigabytes customers use in a ‘consumption-based’ pricing experiment in Texas, which we discussed early last month. The announced plan was that they were considering a tier-based approach, as opposed to per-gigabyte fees.”
