DirecTV opposed arguments from NCTA that vertical integration no longer...
DirecTV opposed arguments from NCTA that vertical integration no longer threatens video competition. DirecTV filed an ex parte letter in dockets 12-68, 07-18 and 05-192. NCTA’s Aug. 23 filing (http://xrl.us/bnnrnw) includes a graph that shows a decline in the percentage…
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of national basic cable programming networks that are affiliated with a cable company, DirecTV said (http://xrl.us/bnnrm7). Such evidence “is largely irrelevant to the issue in this proceeding,” it said. If anything, the evidence “is more indicative of the fact that vertical integration is not the necessary precondition to launching new and innovative programming networks that the cable industry asserts.” NCTA also conveyed the decrease in cable’s share of the national multichannel video programming distribution market over time, DirecTV said. The implication is that “pro-competitive safeguards are no longer necessary at this level of market share,” it added: This argument “is flatly inconsistent with past commission precedent.”