Cablevision Hires Top Martin Aide

Cablevision announced Thursday that Catherine Bohigian, a top aide to Federal Communications Commission Chairman Kevin Martin, is joining the company as its top Washington, DC lobbyist. Bohigian, currently chief of the FCC's Office of Strategic Planning and Policy Analysis, was a senior advisor and legal advisor to Martin when he was a regular FCC member from 2001 to 2005. The hiring of Bohigian was an unusual move for Cablevision, which hasn't stationed a company employee in Washington D.C. to lobby Congress and the FCC. Instead, the company has relied on the law firm Mintz, Levin, Cohn, Ferris, Glovsky and Popeo. Cablevision's decision struck some as odd because Bohigian served an FCC chairman who barraged cable operators with new regulations after the industry refused Martin's request that it adopt an a la carte business model, which would allow consumers to pick and pay for channels on an individual basis.