Lawmakers Press FCC On AT&T's Public Program Offerings

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Members of a powerful House committee are pressing the Federal Communications Commission to put a stop to how AT&T offers public and educational programming on its fledgling paid TV service. While FCC Commissioners have yet to weigh in, FCC Media Bureau Chief Monica Shah Desai said Wednesday that AT&T's practice of placing public programming on a single channel where subscribers scroll through a menu of options violates the law. "I would be anxious to place this issue in front of the commissioners for them to decide, with our view that this would be a violation of the statute," Desai said at a hearing. Rep Jose Serrano (D-NY), who chairs the House Appropriations Financial Services Subcommittee, said AT&T's method falls short. "Many concerns have been raised that this approach makes the channels more difficult to view, offers inferior quality and results in the loss of features such as closed captioning," he said. Subcommittee member Mark Kirk (R-IL) said AT&T wouldn't get help from Republicans. "I'm completely with you on nailing AT&T with what they're doing over public access," he said. "It does appear that AT&T is in violation of Illinois law. We need to make sure that there is a very convenient place, especially for our seniors, to find out what's happening in their community."


Lawmakers Press FCC On AT&T's Public Program Offerings