[opendtv] Re: News: NAB, NCTA Square Off Over Competition
- From: "John Willkie" <johnwillkie@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Wed, 3 Jan 2007 10:09:23 -0800
Good point, but in previous editions of the document, the report said what
the rate was for individual channels.
A more focused question is why the change now?
John Willkie
> -----Original Message-----
> From: opendtv-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:opendtv-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]
> On Behalf Of Craig Birkmaier
> Sent: Wednesday, January 03, 2007 6:17 AM
> To: OpenDTV Mail List
> Subject: [opendtv] News: NAB, NCTA Square Off Over Competition
>
>
>
> This makes one wonder why the FCC does not have the guts to demand
> that the cable industry reveal the amount that each consumer pays for
> each channel?
>
> As usual, what we wind up with is a bunch of industry sniping that
> amounts to nothing. As I have said before, "Everybody is winning..."
>
> Except for the consumer!
>
> Regards
> Craig
>
> http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6403538.html?display=Breaking+N
> ews&referral=SUPP&nid=2228
>
> Breaking News
> NAB, NCTA Square Off Over Competition
> By John Eggerton -- Broadcasting & Cable, 1/2/2007 3:31:00 PM
>
> Broadcasters have told the FCC in a filing that the retransmission
> consent regime is working very nicely, thank you, and does not
> disadvantage multichannel video programming distributors (MVPDs).
>
> In reply comments to the FCC on its assessment of the state of
> competition in the video marketplace, the National Association of
> Broadcasters focused on the retransmission consent regime, saying
> that the cable industry was trying to "pass the buck" by blaming
> rising cable prices on retransmission consent negotiations, in which
> cable companies must negotiate for carriage with TV stations that to
> not elect must-carry status.
>
> Using recent FCC cable rate data as ammunition, broadcasters preached
> to the FCC choir about the 93% ris4e in cable prices since 1996, and
> pointed out that, for the most part, stations don't get money for
> their signals and so couldn't be blamed for rising prices.
>
> Saying that TV stations are prime channel real estate for cable, they
> argue that retransmission consent rules allow for broadcasters to be
> "fairly compensated for supplying that increased value."
>
> The "real culprit" in rising cable prices, said the NAB, is limited
> competition in the cable marketplace, pointing to a General
> Accounting Office study that prices are lower in communities that
> have wireline competition.
>
> Nor surprisingly, the cable industry was having none of it. In its
> filing to the FCC, the National Cable & Telecommunications
> Association said that the video marketplace is so "drenched in
> competition" that no credible case can be made that "further
> government intervention is necessary," though it was referring more
> to the telephone company's attempts, with some success, to gain a
> clearer regulatory path to video and broadband competition to cable.
>
> NCTA took aim at the FCC price study and its 93% boost since 1996. It
> called the data old and obsolete, said there were other reasons for
> the GAO study's findings that had nothing to do with competitor's
> competitiveness. They included that some of the lower prices could be
> attributed to overbuilders who had undercut the market price and gone
> under themselves, or others who had bought systems from some of those
> bankrupt overbuilders for pennies on the dollar allowing them to
> charge less. Still others were operated as not-for-profits, said NCTA.
>
> In any case, said NCTA, the price hike figures to not include the
> value or service hikes that accompanied it. It used a price "per
> viewing hour" that showed minimal increases and a decrease when
> adjusted for inflation.
>
> It did not use the per-channel argument it has made in the past, when
> it pointed out that on a per-channel basis, prices had not gone up at
> all. The FCC this year stopped using that figure, arguing it was
> mooted by the cable industry's refusal to offer a la carte service
> and allow viewers to pay only for the networks they watched or wanted.
>
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