Why FCC Head Aims to Broaden Access to Spare Cable Channels

WHY FCC HEAD AIMS TO BROADEN ACCESS TO SPARE CABLE CHANNELS
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Corey Boles corey.boles@dowjones.com]
Federal Communications Commission Chairman Kevin Martin is proposing a 75% cut in the rates cable television companies can charge to lease access to their spare channels. By slashing the rates to 10 cents a month per subscriber from about 40 cents, Chairman Martin appears to intend to enable more programming from women and minorities. The underrepresentation of women and minorities in television has long been a concern of the FCC's Democratic commissioners. More recently, Chairman Martin has focused attention on that idea in public speeches. To enact the fee change, Chairman Martin would need at least two other votes on the five-member commission, which includes two Democrats, two Republicans and the chairman. The item is likely to be voted on this month and could be enacted as soon as next year, depending on the extent of cable industry opposition. Most cable companies are required to set aside 15% of their channels for lease to groups that couldn't otherwise compete with commercial broadcasters. Andrew Schwartzman, president of Media Access Project, a public-interest group that has pushed for lower rates for the cable-access channels, said only about 1% of the leased-access channels are being used.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB119491662317390708.html?mod=todays_us_pa...
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* Martin Says FCC Has More Power to Regulate Cable
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6500063.html?rssid=193

* How Bad Will It Get At The FCC?
Cable lawyers and lobbyists on Monday had one question on their minds: How bad is this thing at the Federal Communications Commission going to get? The answer won't be known for weeks or months as FCC chairman Kevin Martin will need that time to get the agency to process a host of new regulatory burdens he favors for cable operators and their program suppliers. “We are in the middle of it. The s--t storm is not over,” a cable attorney said.
http://www.multichannel.com/article/CA6500303.html?rssid=196

* Do numbers add up to reregulating cable?
Several independent analyses show that cable hasn't reached the 70% threshold in the face of competition from satellite TV. The cable companies even cite the FCC's own data from last year that put their penetration at less than 60%. The FCC has not yet released its findings, which are based on its own analysis of independent data. But the agency has faced criticism in the past of manipulating data to suit its policy goals, most recently on studies it commissioned as it considers lifting a ban on owning a newspaper and TV station in the same market. Consumer groups level similar charges of statistical manipulation against cable companies, which they accuse of low-balling their subscriber data to avoid triggering the threshold.
http://www.latimes.com/business/printedition/la-fi-cable13nov13,1,290346...
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* FCC Untangling Industry Norms
Why does the Republican chairman of the Federal Communications Commission seem to be picking fights with the cable-television industry? People in the industry and at the commission who are familiar with the situation, but who did not want to be identified, say Chairman Kevin J. Martin, having failed to get the cable industry to embrace an "a la carte" model - where cable customers could pick and choose channels -- is seeking other ways to regulate.
http://www.philly.com/inquirer/business/20071113_FCC_Untangling_Industry...