Roberts Tells Genachowski There Are No Quick Retrans Fixes
Comcast Chief Says FCC Needs To Assess Whether "Different Approaches' Are Needed
John Eggerton -- Multichannel News, 1/12/2010 5:22:48 PM
FCC chairman Julius Genachowski and Comcast chairman and CEO Brian Roberts met in Las Vegas Jan. 7 to talk about a number of issues.
The venue was the Consumer Electronics Show where Genachowski was speaking.
During the meeting, according to an ex parte filing with the commission, they talked about retransmission-consent, TV set-tops, network neutrality and the broadband plan, but not about the proposed joint venture of Comcast and NBC Universal.
Roberts cautioned that there are no quick fixes to the retrans process, according to Comcast, but that the FCC needs to get together with industry to see whether "different approaches" are needed.
On set-tops, Roberts echoed the National Cable & Telecommunications Association call for the FCC to launch a wide-ranging notice of inquiry more comprehensive than the requests for comment on the subject issued as part of the broadband plan. The FCC is widely expected to ask for more comment (specifically reply comments) on set-tops as part of that request, but the cable industry wants a larger examination of the issue that includes a hard look at the result of the FCC's ban on integrated set-tops, which the commisison has conceded has not spurred a retail market in the devices.
The discussions of network neutrality and the broadband plan were said to be reiterations of prior positions by Comcast.
The meeting came the same day that FCC and Comcast lawyers were squaring off in Washington on the issue of network management, specifically the FCC's finding that Comcast violated its Internet openness principles by blocking/impeding peer-to-peer traffic. Comcast challenged that decision saying the FCC was not empowered to adjudicated based on principles rather than laws.
No related content found.
VIEW ALL GALLERIES
