Wholesale Unbundling Support May Prompt Martin to Seek Vote
Mounting support for requiring cable and broadcast networks to be sold separately to pay-TV providers may prompt FCC Chairman Kevin Martin to seek a vote on such rules, said proponents and opponents of so-called wholesale unbundling. Martin has held off circulating an order (CD Aug 1 p6), which doesn’t appear to have been written yet by the Media Bureau, they said. But recent support for wholesale unbundling regulations from pay-TV companies, which Martin seems to have sought, may buttress his case for taking action, they said.
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
Export Compliance Daily combines U.S. export control news, foreign border import regulation and policy developments into a single daily information service that reliably informs its trade professional readers about important current issues affecting their operations.
Among those whose backing was garnered in the past month are the Broadband Service Providers Association, whose members include RCN and other cable overbuilders, and lobbying groups for rural telecom companies which sell video and independent programmers. Martin was said to have asked some groups to support wholesale unbundling as a way to address program-access issues many of them long had sought action on. In addition to barring programmers from making cable operators, telcos and satellite-TV providers carry multiple channels to get one, any forthcoming FCC order likely would make it easier for independent programmers to get pay-TV carriage, said industry officials. But “no one at the FCC is working on an order” along those lines, said an FCC spokeswoman.
Nonetheless, opponents and proponents of such rules said they expect Martin to eventually circulate an order and seek a vote, which could come as soon as the Sept. 25 FCC meeting. Even though there’s no order underway, Martin continues to appear intent on getting a vote on rules to promote the sale of cable channels individually, said Progress & Freedom Foundation’s Adam Thierer. “The chances are very good that he will advance something on the wholesale a la carte front,” said Thierer, whose group usually opposes regulation. “This chairman isn’t going to stop until he gets something approximating a full blown a la carte mandate on the cable industry, and he'll do it by any means necessary.”
But before Martin seeks a vote, more lawmakers may write him to ask for action, as several already have, said an industry executive. Participants in the commission’s wholesale programming review may also make several more filings on the subject, the official said. A Thursday filing from Viacom contended the commission lacks authority to promulgate rules over video programming. There are “unambiguous statutory limitations and FCC decisions that make clear that no provision of law permits the Commission to intrude on the wholesale market,” it said. Despite claims by the Media Access Project and other groups, programmers don’t require pay-TV companies to buy multiple networks to get one, Viacom said.
But wholesale programming “market forces are insufficient,” RCN Senior Vice President Richard Ramlall said in an interview. Although the company doesn’t usually seek regulation, FCC action is needed “to mitigate the stranglehold that these programmers have on what we deliver and how we deliver it,” he added. “Absent commission intervention, RCN and other operators can’t give our customers the choices they want.” A spokesman for the NCTA declined to comment.
Pay-TV companies should be able to provide cable networks and TV stations to subscribers on an unbundled basis or other programming tiers, said American Cable Association President Matt Polka. “Our goal is to see the FCC act on the unbundling matter as soon as possible, whether in September or October, but this year for sure” because there’s more bundling occurring, he said in an interview. “I think the issue has been staked out, not only by our interests that want unbundling, [but also by] the major programming interests whose financial interest is to prevent unbundling … Now it’s up to the commission to, as they say, get three votes.”