30% Cable-Ownership Cap May Make FCC’s Dec. 18 Meeting Agenda

30% CABLE-OWNERSHIP CAP MAY MAKE FCC'S DEC 18 MEETING AGENDA
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
Federal Communications Commission Chairman Kevin Martin circulated a list of items on the agenda for the agency’s Dec. 18 public meeting that includes a vote to cap the size of cable companies. This doesn't mean that it will necessarily make the official agenda, however, which won't be released until one week before the meeting. The possible agenda items were drawn from among the 100-plus items that have been on circulation to the other commissioners for a vote for more than six months. In fact, the 30% cap proposal dates back from at least March, when an FCC aide identified it as one of dozens of items sent to the commissioners by the chairman. Comcast, the nation's largest cable operator, currently reaches about 27% of all multichannel video subscribers, but that will likely go down a half million or so subs after it unwinds a partnership with Insight Communications.
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6506392.html
* Comcast Unhappy With Martin’s Cable Cap
“Against the backdrop of these decisions that have strengthened the hands of our Bell competitors, it is unthinkable that the government would constrain the ability of cable companies like Comcast to compete with these colossal companies that have virtually unlimited financial resources,” Comcast executive vice president David Cohen said. “AT&T alone has a market capitalization of $231 billion -- larger than the entire cable industry combined.”
http://www.multichannel.com/article/CA6506418.html?rssid=196

* Comcast Protests FCC’s Effort to Reimpose Coverage Cap
http://www.tvweek.com/news/2007/11/comcast_protests_fccs_effort_t.php

* Round 2 set in FCC versus cable fight (Associated Press)
http://www.newsobserver.com/1573/story/801809.html

* FCC Plan Could Limit Expansion of Comcast
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB119639689311409261.html?mod=todays_us_pa...