The Walt Disney Co. chairman and CEO Michael Eisner recently paid visits
to two members of the Federal Communications Commission to press his company's
position on cable discrimination against unaffiliated interactive-television
providers and other cable-carriage topics.
Eisner visited FCC headquarters Oct. 18 to meet with Democratic commissioner
Michael Copps and Republican commissioner Kevin Martin in separate meetings,
according to FCC records.
Disney is urging the FCC to adopt rules
that would bar cable operators from favoring their interactive-TV affiliates over unaffiliated
interactive-TV providers.
The company also wants to ensure that cable operators are denied the right to
delete program-related material that TV stations embed in their digital bit
streams.
Disney disclosed the Eisner meetings in a pair of letters
placed in the FCC's public record Oct. 23.
Although the letters did not convey the substance of the meetings, they
referred to cable-carriage proceedings in which the company has filed comments.
