FCC Planning Rules to Open Cable Market

quanticle writes "According to the New York Times, the FCC is planning to unveil new regulations for the cable market that will lower barriers to entry for independent programmers. The rules would be aimed at stopping the growth of existing cable giants like Comcast and Time Warner, while seeking to encourage more small companies to get into the field. Also, earlier this month, the FCC struck down the practice of having exclusive contracts between cable providers and apartment owners. All in all, this looks like a welcome infusion of competition into an otherwise stagnant market. The impact that this will have on the network neutrality debate is unclear."

Comments

Very strange.

[vertinox]

Who are you and what did you do with the real FCC?

Anyone notice the math error?

[gilroy]

Kyle McSlarry whines that studies show fewer than 70% of American households subscribe to cable -- and thus the FCC doesn't have power to regulate cable. But under the "70/70 rule" of the 1984 Cable Communications Act, Congress empowered the FCC once cable was available to 70% of households and was subscribed to by 70% of those who could. So really the line is 49%, not 70%.

Are the cablecos deliberately misleading people or is it just that they can't do math? Judging from my cable bill, both.

Re:Hey Slashdot

[The Spoonman]

Nobody did, but we ended up with Gee Dubya anyway.