[opendtv] Re: The FCC defeated multicast must-carry
- From: "Manfredi, Albert E" <albert.e.manfredi@xxxxxxxxxx>
- To: "OpenDTV (E-mail)" <opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Fri, 11 Feb 2005 15:35:18 -0500
Craig Birkmaier wrote:
> As the decision handed down yesterday notes,
> the enabling legislation does NOT support dual
> carriage or the carriage of multicasts. If the
> NAB and its cronies have any hope of changing
> the status quo, they must convince Congress to
> legislate multicast carriage.
What I always thought was great about Powell's
FCC was that they were balanced. For example, this
defeat (or non-acceptance) of dual must carry and
multicast must carry is perfectly balanced with
another Powell decision -- the combined ATSC tuner
mandate and the digital cable CE agreement. So now,
the NAB can request only the main digital program
stream to be carried on cable systems, and let
the market take care of the rest.
Cable users will be able to bypass their cable
companies if the cable systems don't carry what
they want. They could not easily do this without
this agreement. This gives the broadcasters a good
incentive to work their digital plants, to promote
good ATSC tuners, even to install gap fillers as
necessary, to get ubiquitous coverage.
> > And it introduced some common sense into the
> > meaning of 85 percent in the 1997 Balanced
> > Budget Act.
>
> What common sense? From here, nothing has changed.
> Ferree is leaving. His plan is nothing more than
> shredded paper now. Again, it is up to Congress to
> change the rules.
Until Powell and Ferree, many gave a nonsensical
interpretation to 85 percent. From a post earlier
this week, it looks like the 2007 date is still on
the table. It seems like Congress listened to the
sensible interpretation, which is what FCC success
MEANS in our form of government. So my hat's off to
them.
The same happened with the national caps. Was 35
percent, FCC proposed 45 percent, with good
arguments, and Congress compromised on 39 percent.
In my book, that's success for the FCC.
[Broadcast flag]
> Yes, it is questionable whether they had the
> authority to impose this.
Hey, Congress certainly had the authority to counter
the ruling, which they did not do. That's the way
this is supposed to work.
> What Powell has done is set the stage for the
> next re-write of the Communications Act (the
> 2006 version).
Probably so. And I think it set the right tone.
Bert
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