ACA Meets With Martin Aide On A La Carte

In a recent meeting with a senior aide to Federal Communications Commission Chairman Kevin Martin, top officials from the American Cable Association backed rules to require cable programmers to charge the same monthly fee to all cable companies regardless of size. ACA president Matt Polka, joined by ACA outside attorneys and five other senior ACA officials, backed what ACA called "the national pricing plan" in a meeting held Wednesday with Martin's acting legal adviser for media issues, Elizabeth Andrion. ACA also tossed its support behind Martin's effort to impose wholesale a la carte mandates on cable programmers. Those rules would require a programmer to offer each programming service on a stand-alone basis rather than in a package on a take-it-or-leave-it basis.