The FCC should preserve and strengthen program access rules and s...
The FCC should preserve and strengthen program access rules and scrutinize how cable operators “are actively thwarting new telco entry” into video by keeping them out of multiple dwelling units, USTelecom said in reply comments filed before a Dec.…
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29 deadline in the Commission’s annual video competition docket. “There is little doubt what would happen” if program access rules expire in 2007, USTelecom said. Under the rules, cable operators that also own programming networks must license programming to other pay-TV providers. Too many apartment buildings and condos come under exclusive access agreements with incumbent operators, said USTelecom. In separate comments, the Organization for the Promotion & Advancement of Small Telecommunications Companies (OPASTCO) suggested reforming the retransmission consent rules because they hurt rural telcos’ chances of entering the video market. The FCC should “grant the American Cable Association’s petition on retransmission consent and adopt the suggested rules,” OPASTCO said. The Commission also should move to do away with confidential program carriage contracts between networks and pay-TV operators, OPASTCO said. Rural carriers can’t get “a sense of the true market value of the programming they are purchasing” without knowing what others pay, the group said. And the FCC should make it harder for cable operators to use FCC findings of effective competition to escape rate regulation, OPASTCO said. The FCC has no statutory basis on which to expand program access rules beyond “vertically- integrated, satellite delivered programming,” NCTA reply comments said: “Such increased intrusion in the marketplace would be unwarranted.” The pay TV market is already competitive, the group said: “The Commission should report to Congress once and for all that the delivery of video programming is fully competitive… [and] reject proposals for further government intrusion in the workings of a competitive marketplace.”