FCC Extends Comment Deadline For 2007 Video Competition Report

The Federal Communications Commission has given cable operators and others an extension of their deadline for commenting on the 2007 video competition report because the FCC has decided to play catch-up by combining the 2007, 2008 and 2009 "annual" reports into a single document. The Commission just issued the 2006 report last month. That report got caught up in the controversy over the FCC's tentative conclusion that cable had reached a competitive threshhold (70% penetration, 70% subscribership) that could justify new regulation. The Commission said it needed to extend the deadline given the additional information it would be requesting about 2008. The commission is considering a raft of new reporting requirements to help it better determine cable's penetration of the multichannel video market, an effort that has met with some resistance from cable operators. The Commission said Monday that the comments on its notice of inquiry on the 2007 report were no longer due Feb. 27 and that it would set a new deadline to sync with the one for 2008 information. The FCC did not say when the new comment deadlines would be, but did say it would do so as soon as possible.