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FCC Ignores Public, Relaxes Media Ownership
anthrax writes "Ignoring Congressional and public comments, the FCC voted to relax ownership rules that have prevented broadcasters from owning newspapers in the nation's 20 largest media markets. After holding several public hearings that overwhelmingly opposed the relaxation of the rules, and Congressional hearing where Democrats and Republicans (even Ted 'Tubes' Stevens) voiced opposition to the move, the FCC voted 3 to 2 to relax ownership. On the same day the FCC voted 3 to 2 (by a different split) to cap the size of any cable company at 30% of the nationwide market, a limit Comcast is up against."
What right does the FCC have to tell Comcast it can't control more than 30% of the market? Sure, Comcast isn't the greatest cable company in the U.S., but is better than most. What about the millions of people suffering under Mediacom or Charter? I bet they'd gladly take Comcast over their current crap provider (and rumor has it Comcast has even considered buying out smaller rivals) Small regional cable companies like Mediacom and Charter offer terrible programming and mediocre service compared to Comcast -- But thanks to the FCC , millions are stuck with idiotic companies.
Comcast isn't perfect. They limit Bittorrent seeding and they have invisi-caps, albeit much higher than Cox's. Yet, their 16/1 broadband for $52.95/month is actually a decent offering, especially compared to DSL's abysmal speeds for 95% of Americans.
Comcast's video service is pretty solid and it's improved a lot in the past few years, aside from occassional glitches and buggy DVR software. Not as many HD channels as satellite, but compared to even TimeWarner, Comcast has impressive HD On-demand using Switched Digital Video, good promotional pricing, and now that they're upgrading to 1Ghz systems Comcast is starting to offer 30 or 40 HD channels in some areas.
It's not like Comcast is even close to being able to exert monopoly power for any of the services they offer. This is because so many substitutes exist -- for video, there's Satellite, broadcast, U-verse, Fios, streaming sites like YouTube, iTunes/iPod, cell phone video. For internet, there's Wi-Max, 3G, EDGE, DSL, Dial-Up, and Dedicated Lines.
MAYBE if Comcast had so much power they could jack up prices exorbitantly without getting eaten alive by competition, then the FCC would have a case. But as it is, the FCC's decision is dead wrong. The ruling marks yet another by Kevin Martin to hurt the cable companies and help the telco companies. I wonder if there's some ulterior motive to Martin's seemingly anti-cable, pro-telco agenda as of late? Either way, thanks to the FCC, consumers lose.