FCC Seeks Input on Video Competition, Including Bells’ Plans
The FCC wants input on a variety issues for its annual video competition report, including obligations Bells may incur to as they start to sell their own pay-TV services. The notice of inquiry (NOI) for the 12th annual assessment of the market for delivering video programming also requests analyses of how conglomeration affects programming and seeks opinions on the DTV transition. The NOI, issued Fri., stalled amid an 8th-floor tussle over deregulating DSL, and was pulled from the Commission’s August meeting agenda.
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Comrs. Adelstein and Copps said the report should address concerns over competition, given cable industry consolidation via more than $200 billion in acquisitions in the past decade. “We have the potential to increase our understanding of the market and the consequences for consumers at a time when we are seeing not only new services… but also continuing rate increases,” Copps said in a statement. “Video programming delivery involves an intricate web of relationships that requires close monitoring to ensure fair competition, consumer choices, lower prices, better services and diverse sources,” Adelstein said. Comments are due Sept. 19, replies Oct. 3.
The FCC also wants information on cable and DBS rates and service quality; from 1998 through last year, monthly rates for certain cable products rose 32%. The Commission wants to know the effect companies including Cablevision, Comcast, DirecTV and Time Warner, which own both TV programming and distribution businesses, “have on other video distributors’ abilities to obtain programming.”
One area likely to generate comments is how to regulate Bells’ pay-TV services. The Commission asked if Title 6 cable rules are consistent with Title 2 rules for local exchange carriers (LECs). The NOI asks whether BellSouth, SBC and Verizon, which plan to use Microsoft software for IPTV, will offer services comparable to cable and satellite operators. The NOI also “seek[s] data on a broad range of issues relating to the DTV transition” as cable operators sign more accords to offer digital broadcasts along with carrying analog signals. Those issues include whether broadcast TV is becoming a substitute for pay TV and whether cable customers must buy digital service to get DTV broadcasts. The most recent video competition report appeared Feb. 4.