Media Lobbyists Tell Hill, FCC of Concern on a la Carte
Media lobbyists, worried about the prospect of the FCC making programmers sell channels individually to cable operators, satellite-TV providers and telecommunications companies (CD Sept 4 p5), are sharing their concerns with regulators and lawmakers, according to ex parte filings and interviews with industry officials. The lobbyists also worry the FCC will impose stricter program access rules, governing deals between cable operators and programmers, said the officials. They're visiting the offices of commissioners and lawmakers to try to ward off increased regulation by FCC Chairman Kevin Martin. He has long advocated a la carte and in 2007 extended by five more years a ban on programmers striking exclusive deals for distribution of channels affiliated with cable operators.
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The lobbyists hope visits to Capitol Hill and the FCC’s eighth floor will head off any requirement that programmers sell all pay-TV companies channels on an a la carte basis and discontinue offering them discounts for buying the rights to multiple channels, said industry officials. Executives hope to convince lawmakers to put pressure on the FCC not to adopt so-called wholesale a la carte rules, which Martin has publicly indicated he supports, they said. Cable programmers believe Congress limited the FCC’s authority to impose further program access rules, including wholesale a la carte, said an industry official. An FCC spokeswoman said she couldn’t comment right away.
With an ongoing House Commerce Committee investigation of the commission over an a la carte report and other items, Martin may be disinclined to circulate an order among commissioners mandating wholesale unbundling of channels, said an industry official. In February 2006, the FCC reversed the findings of a report published under Chairman Michael Powell (2001-2005), resulting in a new finding that a la carte could reduce customers’ monthly cable bills. Some FCC and industry officials said they believe Martin will cite comments on the channel bundling and program access notice supporting his position by the American Cable Association and others in a future order imposing some form of a la carte.
But Martin hasn’t yet circulated an order taking up the concerns in the notice, said agency and industry officials. But he’s likely to do so sometime in 2008, said an industry lawyer. The notice may give Martin his last chance to impose a la carte on cable, so the chairman is expected to take the opportunity, said the attorney. But Martin hasn’t let industry know what the item will entail. The chairman seems determined to get a vote on such an order, the lawyer added. But it’s unclear whether the chairman has the support of other commissioners, said another lawyer.
MPAA officials met with congressional staffers Thursday about a la carte, said a spokeswoman for the group. She declined to provide more information about the meetings. In February reply comments on the FCC’s notice, MPAA opposed more rules. “The current expanding program access environment suggests a need for less, not more, government regulation and intervention in the marketplace,” the filing said. “Yet the Commission is being importuned to insert itself more deeply into the negotiations” for programming between companies.
Cablevision and Disney officials went to the eighth floor in the past month to share their opposition to further regulation, ex parte filings show. Disney Media Networks Chairmen Anne Sweeney and George Bodenheimer “stressed there is no reason or need for the FCC to issue and new regulations requiring any kind of a la carte -- wholesale or a la carte - - or any new regulations regarding retransmission consent or cable programmer negotiations,” a filing said. Disney executives visited with Martin and Media Bureau Chief Monica Desai. They held separate gatherings with Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein, Robert McDowell and Deborah Tate. Meeting individually with aides to all FCC members except Tate, Cablevision said a ban on exclusive cable programming deals should be nixed in markets where “competition is robust.”