FCC Delays Vote On Cable TV Regulation

Tech.Luver recommends a story unfolding at the FCC, where Chairman Kevin Martin delayed a vote on a report that would open the door to more agency control over the cable television industry. Analysts say that Martin lacked support to pass the measure. The delayed vote was on a draft report, backed by Martin, that found that cable companies control enough of the pay-TV market to warrant more oversight under the so-called "70/70" rule — 70% of US households passed by cable and 70% of those with access to cable service subscribing to it. The cable industry disputed the figures in the report, and Martin's two fellow Republican commission members also expressed doubts.

Comments

Re:Fuck the FCC

[Osty]

Or even worse, signals that people pay for that are sent along copper, as is the case they are trying to get to here?

Who said anything about censorship? This was a push to get more regulatory control over the cable industry in order to do things like force a la carte subscription options. You could argue that government has no place to regulate private industry like that, but that has nothing to do with free speech or censorship.

Also, the FCC doesn't cover cable-only channels like FX (lots of "shit" and near nudity there with shows like The Shield and Nip/Tuck, with only self-regulation stopping them from going further), in terms of censorship. They cover broadcast channels that then happen to be re-distributed via cable.

What part about Congress shall make no law ... abridging the freedom of speech is so hard to understand?

Congress can't make it illegal for you to say "shit" or "fuck" or show a tit on TV, but they don't have to allow you to use the public airwaves to do it.

Re:Just what we need.

[RaceCarDriver]

I forget where I was reading it, but it was something like cable TV rates have gone up every year for 10 or 20(or maybe more) years... And it also mentioned the increase was well above the inflation rate.

Re:Just what we need.

[ktappe]

The current situation of constant rate increases far in excess of inflation and retarded technological innovation is definitive proof that sometimes government regulation is sorely needed. I strongly suspect that if you were a coal miner you'd be rather happy that the gov't has rules preventing you from working 15 hour days, 7 days a week, with no air filters. The next time you're in a car accident, you probably won't consider that it's government regulations that mandated crumple zones, seat belts, air bags, and other innovations that saved your life. Open your eyes and you might see that government regulations are not always bad.

Re:70/70

[teebob21]

Good attempt at spin, but you missed the most important statistic -- and it was on the same page:

Cable Penetration of TV Households (June 2007): 58.3%

The number comes from a third-party research company, and falls well short of the 70% penetration required by the 1984 law. Kevin Martin needs to get his witch's cauldron and cook the numbers a little longer on this one.

Additionally, 'homes passed' doesn't measure only houses where people may live. It also often includes businesses and other locations that the cable co. may provide service, such as city hall or local schools. American TV Households is a count of "total number of houses we could possibly serve" while 'homes' passed refers to "total number of US Postal Addresses that could be serviced by a cable provider if they called for a install tomorrow".