[opendtv] Re: News: EXCLUSIVE: FCC chief slams cable rates
- From: Tom Barry <trbarry@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Thu, 21 Aug 2008 17:28:20 -0400
Canada has a la carte cable pricing?
If so, how's it working?
- Tom
Craig Birkmaier wrote:
http://washingtontimes.com/news/2008/aug/20/fcc-chief-slams-cable-rates/
EXCLUSIVE: FCC chief slams cable rates
Martin sees ineffective competition
Kara Rowland (Contact)
Wednesday, August 20, 2008
NEWSMAKER INTERVIEW:
The nation's top media regulator says he doesn't have the power to solve
the "single biggest problem" facing media consumers and isn't counting
on Congress to act any time soon.
But Federal Communications Commission Chairman Kevin J. Martin said the
inability of cable subscribers to choose among channels is keeping
prices high and is a sign that the market isn't working.
"Today, consumers pay double what they paid less than a decade ago and
they have fewer choices, not more, and they have to buy a bigger and
bigger bundle of services if they want to get anything," Mr. Martin told
editors and reporters at The Washington Times on Tuesday. "If you want
to buy the Discovery Channel for your children, you have to buy a
package that includes a whole bunch of channels that you don't want."
Mr. Martin said the prices of other communications services - such as
wireless access or international calling - have fallen in the past
decade, but cable is an exception. In that time, cable channels have
doubled, but the average number of channels that subscribers watch has
increased only from 13 to 15, he said, pointing to Nielsen Media
Research statistics.
The Republican head of the five-member media-regulating agency said the
FCC's job is to promote competition, "but we have to acknowledge when it
doesn't seem to be working." Satellite TV providers don't create an
"effective price constraint" because they typically price their services
on a national basis - making it harder to compete with regional cable
firms - and residents of apartment buildings are often unable to hook up
to satellite dishes, he said.
"One of the things that's most disturbing, I think, and should send a
red flag to any government official and to anybody when they're looking
at industries is when people are trying to hide information from
customers," Mr. Martin said about the cable industry's lack of
disclosing per-channel prices. "For a market to be efficiently working,
people have to be making knowing choices and those choices have to have
real economic consequences."
The solution, he said, is an "a la carte" pricing regime in which
subscribers could opt out of channels they don't want and pay only for
the channels they receive. Various a la carte systems have been adopted
in Canada, Singapore and Hong Kong.
Mr. Martin, who has been pushing for such a measure for years,
acknowledged that it faces an uphill battle because it would require an
act of Congress and the cable industry is strongly opposed to the idea.
"With no credible economic evidence showing that government mandated a
la carte will reduce the price of video service for the majority of
Americans, and substantial evidence to the contrary, the government
shouldn't interfere with a marketplace that provides the most diverse
programming anywhere in the world," said Brian Dietz, a spokesman for
the National Cable and Telecommunications Association (NCTA).
The trade group has criticized Mr. Martin for failing to account for
increases in the quality of cable programming they say justify higher
fees, including high-definition and on-demand offerings as well as
additional channels. The NCTA has said the cost of cable has fallen when
adjusted for inflation and quality.
In the wide-ranging interview, Mr. Martin repeated his support for the
commission's efforts to punish broadcasters for airing fleeting
expletives. This fall, the U.S. Supreme Court is revisiting broadcast
indecency rules for the first time in 30 years in response to the FCC's
appeal of an lower court's ruling that its policy is "arbitrary and
capricious."
House Democrats, led by Rep. John D. Dingell of Michigan, is
investigating Mr. Martin's management of the FCC for a "possible abuse
of power" and a failure to operate openly. Mr. Martin, however, said his
leadership has been no different from that of previous FCC chairmen of
both parties.
"I've also told the other commissioners I'm happy to end up releasing to
the public when anybody votes," but his colleagues don't want to, he
said. Commissioners vote on items at public meetings or via an internal
electronic system.
Asked whether he plans to stick around after a new administration -
previous chairmen have traditionally stepped down when a new president
takes office - Mr. Martin said, "I don't have any plans to go anywhere."
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Tom Barry trbarry@xxxxxxxxxxx
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