Martin: No Retreat On A La Carte
FCC Chair Remains Committed To Regulating Terms Between Operators, Programming Suppliers
By Ted Hearn -- Multichannel News, 4/9/2008 9:50:00 PM
Washington — Federal Communications Commission chairman Kevin Martin said Wednesday he has no plans to retreat from his quest to pressure the cable industry into adopting an a la carte business model.
"Absolutely, I am still enthusiastic about it. I absolutely think it's the right thing," Martin said in testimony before the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Financial Services and General Government.
Martin recited his anti-cable litany to justify government intervention: rising nominal tier rates and the inability of consumers to opt out of large programming packages.
As Martin acknowledged once again Wednesday, the FCC is powerless to force cable operators to break up their tiers. Instead, Martin has the FCC poised to regulate some contract terms and conditions between cable operators and their programming suppliers.
Over the past few days, Martin has been auditioning a proposal under which cable operators would have the right to eject from expanded basis any cable network that demanded a monthly licenses fee in excess of a certain amount. Martin has floated 75 cents as the ceiling, a level that could clearly threaten ESPN's home on expanded basic.
Martin's forceful comments demonstrated again that almost no amount of political pressure is enough to get him to back away from his a la carte agenda.
On Tuesday, Democratic and Republican leaders of the Senate Commerce Committee, in addition to a second GOP members from the same panel, told Martin face-to-face that he needed to subordinate his personal battles with the cable industry to the vastly more important goal of effecting a smooth transition to all-digital broadcasting February 2009.
Asked on Wednesday whether he would honor those requests, Martin said he disagreed with the premise that he had been told to drop his a la carte agenda.
"The commission is going to continue to consider everything in the proceedings in front of us," Martin told reporters on Capitol Hill, adding that he didn't know when he would try to pass wholesale a la carte rules. "I don't have a particular time frame for comment for you."
Rep. C.A "Dutch" Ruppersberger (D-Md.) told Martin a la carte could raise cable rates and lead to the demise of channels aimed at minorities.
"That’s the other side of your a la carte," he said.
Martin testified that a la carte would provider financial relief to Spanish-speaking viewers because they wouldn't need to buy unnecessary English programming to reach, for example, ESPNdeportes.
"Right now they have to buy ESPN in English in the basic part of the package before they are allowed to buy ESPN in Spanish," Martin asserted. "I don't understand why they should have to do that."
Katina Arnold, ESPN vice president of communications, said her company would support inclusion of ESPNdeportes in the most widely purchased tiers.
"We don't set cable tiers. We would love to see ESPN Deportes on expanded basic," she said.
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Martin is a good policy maker. He''s standing up to political pressure for what''s equitable. The present cable subscription model is anything but fair to consumers. Consumers are force to pay for, & support, many cable channels that simply should not exist but for the present subscription model.
It''s one thing to support a few cable channels that need support of the masses for a few year in order to ramp up viewership to be self-sustaining. It''s another thing to ask the consumer to foot the bill of tens of cable channels that simply don''t merit existence, but exist only to benefit the financial interest of the cable operators that own them.
The studies conducted by the cable industry that suggest that prices will go up are flawed, and based upon irrational consumer behavior. No consumer will agree to a la carte program that costs them more. An objective study indicates that consumer would only subscribe to a number of channels that makes the a la carte subcription less. If a consumer can save $15-$20 on his cable month, he''d likely be willing to forego as many as 50 or so channels he rarely or never watches.
Jay Cable - 4/10/2008 1:03:00 PM EDT -
See - little Kev is the 5 year-old monster in the room.
Ask the good Senator from Alaska - this guy is like a baby seal and he needs a good clubbing.
Quigley Spargus - 4/10/2008 9:12:00 AM EDT
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