ON OPENING UP CABLE ONLY
"F.C.C. Planning rules to open Cable Market", declares the New York Times headline. Some more detail:
"The Federal Communications Commission is preparing to impose significant new regulations to open the cable television market to independent programmers and rival video services after determining that cable companies have become too dominant in the industry, senior commission officials said.
The finding, under a law that gives the commission expanded powers over the cable television industry if it becomes too big, is expected to be announced this month. It is a major departure for the agency and the industry, which was deregulated by an act of Congress in 1996."
This apparently is influenced by previous cable legislation:
"In the cable proceeding, senior commission officials said that this month the agency would announce as part of its annual report on the state of the video services market that it has broad new regulatory authority over the cable industry under the so-called 70/70 rule of the Cable Communications Act of 1984.
Under that provision, the agency may adopt rules necessary to promote “diversity of information sources” once the commission concludes that cable television is available to at least 70 percent of American households, and at least 70 percent of those households actually subscribe to a cable service."
Makes one wish there was a 70/70 rule that applied to telcos and wireless carriers as well, doesn't it? Now those are two other FCC regulated industries that could use a little "opening up".
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