Through the Wire

Contributor: Steve Donohue.

New Cure: A Kids-Only TV Remote

Senate Commerce Committee chairman Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) continues to put heat on the cable industry to offer a family-friendly tier of programming. He thinks cable is getting close, but it’s not there yet.

Stevens has also turned to the consumer-electronics industry for help on program indecency. His idea is the creation of a TV remote control just for children.

“One is green — that’s for kids; one is red — that’s for mom and pop. Let mom and pop decide what channels are on the green one. It’s too simple,” Stevens said. “That’s what we are looking for.”

A spokeswoman for the Consumer Electronics Association was unaware that Stevens had broached a color-coded remote control proposal in talks with CEA officials.

Speaking to reporters at the American Cable Association summit here last Monday in Washington, D.C., Stevens seemed to be coming around to the view that he won’t be able to pass a law that dictates the content of a programming tier.

“I’m not going to legislation if I can possibly avoid it,” Stevens said, hopeful that cable will adopt some kind of family package. “I’ve said all along, I think they can get there by themselves. I don’t think they need regulation in order to do that.”

Stevens has not embraced an indecency bill of Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), which would impose $500,000-per-day fines on cable operators for not offering a kid-friendly tier. But he said Wyden is serving a useful purpose in the debate.

“I thank him because what he does is that he shows the industry how far things could go if they don’t do what we ask them to do. So he plays a very good role, and that’s good cop, bad cop,” Stevens said.

Dave (Kinley)’s Top Ten: A Lesson for the NCTA?

When small cable operators came under intense regulatory pressure from the Federal Communications Commission a decade ago, people like Californian David Kinley helped organize the Small Cable Business Association (now the American Cable Association) to pressure the agency to lighten up on the price controls.

The FCC finally did so, mainly because Republicans took control of Congress and the commission’s budget in 1995.

While here last week for ACA’s annual D.C. summit, Kinley, president of Sun Country Cable, made a few remarks about the group’s past and its challenges ahead. As part of that presentation, Kinley offered “Ten Lessons” he had learned through his association with ACA. (He was its 1993-97 chairman and took home the “ACA Eagle Award” last week.)

Although some were obvious — “There is nothing more effective as you telling your own story” — Lesson No. 5 on trade-group leadership really caught our attention. “The leadership,” Kinley began, “should be people who have lived the business, rather than smooth-talking hired guns with no experience, such as ex-congressional candidates.”

A veiled shot at new National Cable & Telecommunications Association president Kyle McSlarrow?

Couldn’t be. That would have run afoul of Lesson No. 10 — “Never, never, never say or do anything that compromises the integrity or credibility of the organization.”

When Imus Raises Hell, He Gets Cable Action

After a lambasting by radio-and-cable jock Don Imus last Thursday, Time Warner Cable might want to think more about the idea of offering subscribers fixed appointments for service calls.

Calling Time Warner executives “thieves,” Imus complained during his morning show that he was asked to make sure he stayed at home for a four-hour appointment window in order for a tech to replace his faulty digital set-top. “The only reason I can raise hell about it is because I have this radio program,” Imus told listeners. “Millions of people get screwed. They have to take a day off of work so these bastards can show up when they feel like it. Why can’t they make an appointment? You can’t call work and say, 'I’ll be in between 12 and 4.’ ”

Imus also said Time Warner’s service “sucks,” noting that the picture quality on the digital feed is “like you have a bunch of cocaine on your screen.”

The I-Man, whose show is simulcast on MSNBC, also compared high-speed Internet services from Time Warner and Cablevision. “Optimum Online is great. It’s this Road Runner that Time Warner has, that sucks.”

He told listeners he hoped to have the appointment issue resolved by the end of the show, at 10 a.m. Thursday. Well, what do you know: A Time Warner Cable spokeswoman said the system was able to reach the I-Man’s secretary at 8:01 a.m. Thursday, and that a Time Warner tech was scheduled to visit his home on Monday.