Shot Fired Across Martin's Bow on FCC Cable Report

SHOT FIRED ACROSS MARTIN'S BOW ON FCC CABLE REPORT
[SOURCE: TVWeek, AUTHOR: Ira Teinowitz]
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 Commissioner Robert M. McDowell said he will not go along. Commissioner McDowell indicated he would refuse to approve any agency report that says cable reaches 70% of U.S. households, the threshold needed for Chairman Martin to exert more power over cable operators. McDowell said 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.
http://www.tvweek.com/news/2007/11/shot_fired_across_martins_bow.php
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* McDowell: FCC Chairman Martin On A 'Radical’ Cable Course
“[Martin] is asserting that the cable industry, and the cable industry alone, is facing less competition and should be subject to more regulation. This is a radical departure for the [FCC] ­ a departure being made without sufficient chance for public comment,” Commissioner McDowell said.
http://www.multichannel.com/article/CA6504192.html?rssid=196

* Republican FCC Chairman Martin Needs Help from Democrats
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6504156.html?rssid=193

* Jackson: Martin’s 70/70 Finding ‘Deeply Disturbing’
On Monday Rainbow/PUSH Coalition founder the Rev. Jesse Jackson said FCC Chairman Martin is trying to use an "antiquated legal rule to advance what is widely seen by civil-rights leaders as an anti-diversity agenda." He added, "There is virtually no political support from either progressives or conservatives for such pet policies as a la carte pricing, which would raise prices for consumers and hurt most programmers, or for the various ‘leased-access’ programs that will squeeze out channel space for minority-owned programmers. Rather than work through the democratic process in Congress, a bureaucratic agency should not be using a 20-year-old-legal clause to implement wholesale policy changes that hurt consumers and hurt minority television programmers."
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6504165.html?rssid=193