Powell: Cable Must Embrace Localism
By Ted Hearn -- Multichannel News, 6/10/2003 9:38:00 AM
Chicago -- Cable operators need to offer more local programming to forge stronger ties with their communities and challenge TV stations' strong grip on the local news market, Federal Communications Commission chairman Michael Powell said Tuesday.
"I think the cable industry has a lot of untapped areas, like in local communities. I really think there is no reason why a local cable system can't out-local the local broadcaster," Powell said in a one-on-one National Show interview here with Michael Willner, vice chairman and CEO of Insight Communications Co. Inc. and chairman of the National Cable & Telecommunications Association.
Some cable operators -- particularly Cablevision Systems Corp. and Time Warner Cable -- have embraced local news, but Powell indicated that the industry as a whole should do more in this area when the vast majority of TV viewers in many markets subscribe to cable.
"I'd like to see a lot more of that. I'd like to see cable making a presence in the community, having local news channels," Powell explained. "I think it would be an enormous maturing of the cable industry to start being a more approachable presence in people's towns and communities."
On the regulatory front, Powell conveyed the message that cable would be assuming some risk if the industry rallied behind legislation intended to give operators greater leverage over programming suppliers.
"Be careful what you ask for," he said. "The public-policy environment is nervous but not sure what it wants. You hear fights about cable rates, must-carry and [retransmission consent]. But just remember: There is no surgical legislation in America anymore."
The NCTA is opposed to legislation that would, in certain circumstances, require the breakup of large programming packages into smaller tiers.
But Cablevision, Mediacom Communications Corp. and small cable operators have all voiced support for federal aid in their confrontations with cable networks controlled by News Corp. and The Walt Disney Co.
Powell reiterated the point that pushing legislation on Capitol Hill carried risks and rewards. "You open this stuff, you'd better expect to get every anxiety loaded on that as possible," he said.
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