Sens. Seek Adelphia Conditions

SENS SEEK ADELPHIA CONDITIONS
[SOURCE: Multichannel News, AUTHOR: Ted Hearn]
Apparently, Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) and Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-ND) have asked the Federal Communications Commission to consider imposing programming conditions on the sale of Adelphia Communications to Time Warner and Comcast. In an April 4 letter to the FCC, the Senators took the side of DirecTV and EchoStar that Comcast and Time Warner would have the market power to control access to and the price of widely popular regional sports networks, perhaps giving the MSOs too much leverage over pay TV competitors. In their letter, Stevens and Dorgan voiced concern that Comcast and Time Warner might migrate programming services to terrestrial-distribution formats in order to withhold the programming from competitors in a manner consistent with federal program-access rules. Those rules require MSOs to sell just satellite-delivered programming that they own. The lawmakers also said they were concerned that Comcast and Time Warner would control large regional clusters with a high percentage of pay TV subscribers, and that they would use that clout to obtain unaffiliated programming on an exclusive basis. Sens Stevens and Dorgan also suggested that Comcast and Time Warner might make programming available to satellite on discriminatory terms by offering a license-fee structure designed to ensure that satellite providers pay more than cable for the same programming.
http://www.multichannel.com/article/CA6322524.html?display=Breaking+News

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