Leased Access Action Not Expected Soon, Even With Much Lobbying
The FCC isn't expected to act at least before summer on revamping its cable leased access proceeding despite eighth-floor lobbying by the cable industry in recent days (see 1903120070). A cable official told us nothing is expected for April’s agenda. An FCC official said May also seems unlikely and the Media Bureau still seems to be gathering information. The agency and NCTA didn’t comment.
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Fletcher Heald's Peter Tannenwald said the Chairman Ajit Pai administration -- given its propensity to get rid of rarely used regulations -- will undo leased access rules as much as possible, or eliminate the pricing rules. He said leased access pricing has always been too high, which is why it was never heavily used by programmers except for the occasional community group or low-power TV broadcaster.
The FCC continues to ask the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to hold in abeyance NCTA's appeal of its 2008 cable leased access order. The agency says if the court vacates the order, the appeal will be mooted (for example, see here, docket 08-3369). Commissioners in June adopted a Further NPRM proposing to vacate the order and asking about leased access rules revisions (see 1806070021).
Cable operators complain about having to provide part-time access and the industry has been pushing for elimination of that requirement. Leased Access Programmers Association Vice President Duane Polich said that wouldn't make sense. An FCC official said it's not clear how commissioners are looking at part-time leased access.
Polich said the cable industry is “blowing smoke” about the burdens and not providing specifics. He said there should be a route to providing leased access that also reduces cable operators' burdens, such as having information available online for would-be programmers. “The information needs to be more available," he said.
Polich said programmers would like leased access to be provided more on a localized basis, though doing so could be difficult because of cable industry consolidation of head ends. He said cable unduly restricts potential programmer interest in leased access by requiring purchase of large areas of markets. Despite other distribution options for such programming, such as online, “the viewing experience is not the same,” he said.
When he started out as a local programmer leasing access in the 1990s, it "took an act of God to get on" a local family-owned cable system in Alabama, said Steve Jackson, owner of Jackson Media. It leases access from Comcast to distribute shows and local high school sports in the Muscle Shoals area. Being distributed on Comcast makes advertising sales easier by connoting more legitimacy, Jackson said. With alternative distribution methods for content like YouTube available, it's unlikely rule changes would increase the amount of leased access activity, even though the local programming could help cable operators combat cord cutting, he said. Jackson said Comcast is far easier to work with than the family-owned operator from 20-plus years ago, and the rates he's charged recently went down slightly. Comcast didn't comment