Industry, Consumers, CWA Debate Cable Ownership Caps

摘要

The cable TV industry has painted a far different vision of the state of competition in its video programming distribution market than that presented by consumer advocates and communications labor interests. Where the industry sees vigorous competition that defies any effort to justify subscribership and programming-control limits, consumer and union interests see market concentration that cries out for subscriber caps of no more than 30% of the market, if not lower. The parties were responding to an FCC second further notice of proposed rulemaking in Mass Media docket 92-264, in which the Commission is seeking "new evidence and information to support the formulation of horizontal and vertical limits" on subscribership and on operator-owned channels on a cable system (TR, June 1). The FCC also invited comment on a Media Bureau staff research paper "which examines the effect of subscribership on a network's ability to survive in the marketplace."