CABLE LAWYERS GET FEW ANSWERS FROM REGULATORS AT WESTERN SHOW

Regulators, in next panel, said several of those questions still were in courts, including pole attachments, which is before Supreme Court. Cable Bureau Chief Kenneth Ferree, Office of Plans & Policy Chief Robert Pepper and Senior Deputy Chief of Common Carrier Bureau Jeff Carlisle offered few clues about their views on most of questions asked by Jeffrey Sinsheimer, vp-law & public policy at Cal. Cable & Telecom Assn. (CCTA).

Cox Gen. Counsel James Hatcher praised new Commission as “more pro-business” and “a little less likely to be as regulatory as some of the past commissions.” He then rattled off list of issues Cox would like to see settled, including classification of high-speed data, which was subject of Notice of Inquiry and is awaiting decision by Commission. Ferree later said Commission staff was tackling issue on presumption that service “does fit within statutory category that Congress has given us. The challenge is to make that determination.” He said staff members had “answered some of the initial questions for ourselves” and were drafting item.

Hatcher also cited pending Supreme Court pole attachment case, FCC v. Gulf Power, on how data are classified. “We need to get some boundaries and guidelines,” her said. His list also included questions on rules for digital must-carry and introduction of IP telephony: “We think 2002 is going to be a year of a lot of decisions.”

AT&T Broadband Gen. Counsel Rick Bailey said he was particularly concerned about ownership issues stemming from decision by U.S. Appeals Court, D.C., in Time Warner v. FCC, that said agency’s ownership caps were arbitrary. FCC began rulemaking and is receiving comments. Bailey declined to comment on future of AT&T’s broadband unit, saying he wasn’t on panel to “make news.”

For Adelphia lawyer Randall Fisher, “holy grail” is regulatory certainty on rights-of-way. Charter counsel Curtis Shaw said he was optimistic Supreme Court would rule in cable’s favor on pole rates, but said his company was prepared to lobby Congress for new law if court ruled against industry. He said issue presented “digital divide problems” because high pole attachment rates would raise cost of high- speed data service significantly. Ferree later said he was skeptical that cable operators would stop offering high-speed access if they lost on pole attachments: “That’s not to say that there may be an impact on rates.”

Asked about pending decisions in bankruptcy court on fate of Excite@Home, Hatcher said his company months ago began planning to build its own high-speed Internet network. But he was uncertain whether that build-out process would be completed in time to maintain customer service if Excite@Home’s system were ordered shut down (CD Nov 29 p4). Shaw said he couldn’t imagine that court would allow system to go dark without transition period of at least 30 days. “It doesn’t do anybody any good to have innocent citizens lose their service,” Shaw said. Judge in San Francisco could make decision as early as today (Fri.).

Ferree and other FCC officials were questioned about whether their goal was to achieve regulatory symmetry between cable and other service providers, including ILECS. Ferree and Pepper said too much was being made of symmetry. “I'm not one of those who worships at the altar of symmetry,” Ferree said. On issue of classification of data, he said only that staff was “making some headway,” but declined to provide details. He said he agreed Commission should take more of leadership role on how far state and local govts. should go in regulating CLECS, including cable CLECS. “The only problem is… the practical politics of dealing with local and state govts,” Ferree said. Courts around country already are ruling on those questions. -- Brigitte Greenberg

Western Cable Show Notebook…

Attendance for Western Cable Show was 17,056 this year, down 48% from last year, organizers said.

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Now is perfect time for cable to mount offensive against DBS, while satellite industry is in midst of EchoStar acquisition of DirecTV, Carmel Group analyst Sean Badding said: “Cable operators have taken a wait-and-see approach, to wait for more direction coming from the government to see whether this happens… But it’s going to be another 6 to 12 months minimum before anything happens with this deal. I think that it really opens up a window of opportunity for cable operators because this is a major distraction to the operations” of both DirecTV and EchoStar. Badding said “this is going to help cable operators focus on doing things like interactive television or providing new services such as VOD to capture new customers away from the DBS industry when it’s being completely taken off guard while focusing on one thing and that is the acquisition.” On whether deal will get governmental approval, Badding said: “I think right now the way Charlie [Ergen] has structured the deal with DirecTV he has a pretty good chance of getting the deal through the Department of Justice, because he’s going to sell the same story and he is very persuasive in doing that.” -- VM

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In what was probably Western Show’s worst-kept secret, Comcast officially announced new original-programming 24/7 network, G4, which takes aim at country’s ever-growing videogaming industry. G4 founder and CEO, Charles Hirschhorn, said 145 million game-playing Americans already had spent more than $8 billion on video and PC gaming this year, taking over films as most profitable entertainment industry. “Everybody knows Harry Potter broke every box office record in history,” Hirschhorn said. “But the story that got lost behind Harry Potter was that the same weekend, Potter was only the 3rd most popular entertainment product. On Thursday of that weekend, Microsoft introduced the Xbox, which on its opening day outgrossed Harry Potter’s opening weekend. And then that Sunday Nintendo introduced GameCube,” which also brought in more revenue than Harry Potter did at box office: “In fact the videogame industry as a whole 2 weekends ago quadrupled the earnings of Harry Potter.” Comcast Vp-Programming Amy Banse said company had committed to make network available to 7 million subscribers. G4, deemed lifestyle and informational network, will be offered in both digital and analog platform, Banse said. “There are a plethora of advertisers already willing to support the network because of the net’s desirable demos.” Aimed at men 18-34 and teens 12-17, new channel will offer all-original programming, G4 COO Debra Green said. G4 executives believe channel will help drive digital and broadband services, although there are no current plans for interactive component. But, Banse said, “that is something that obviously has enormous potential down the road.” Sensitive to violence issues, G4 will utilize both Entertainment Software Rating Board system and basic cable broadcast standards, officials said. -- VM

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OpenTV said it would work with TVN Entertainment to develop OpenTV-enable interactive services over TVN’s digital satellite platform. Over that platform, TVN serves more than 600 cable systems that reach more than 60 million U.S. households.

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Earthlink said it began high-speed Internet service over Time Warner Cable in L.A., making it available to 610,000 households in southern Cal. Deal was one of biggest ISP carriage agreements Earthlink has reached with AOL-TW since it started rolling out services in Sept. Earthlink has announced 19 debuts, with AOL-TW Tampa area being largest, but its biggest introduction of all was to be announced Fri. (today) for N.Y., passing 2 million homes.

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Cal. Gov. Gray Davis (D) visited convention to thank attendees “for having the courage to be here.” He noted that cable industry employs 250,000 people in Cal. and donates $50-$60 million in free Internet access for schools, libraries and other public settings.

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BBC America and Canal Plus Technologies, which is part of Vivendi-Universal, said they would collaborate to bring BBC America On Demand to N. American network operators. Plan is to offer BBC programming as interactive service.