FCC TO GATHER ITS OWN DATA IN PENDING CABLE PROCEEDINGS
Rather than rely on cable industry and public alone to provide data on FCC’s pending proceedings on cable access and horizontal ownership rules, Commission staff will do its own research and seek independent data to support any decisions by agency, Cable Bureau Chief Ken Ferree said Tues. at Schwab Capital Markets conference. When cable rulemakings were issued, Chmn. Powell and other commissioners stressed that they were depending on industry and public to provide data on which to develop record and base their decisions. However, public interest groups have complained that they lack resources to support such research and would be seriously outgunned by billion-dollar cable industry.
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Several groups objected to Commission’s emphasis on outside research and, in several meetings with commissioners and staff, sought to remind Commission that it “has a job to do,” one official privy to talks said on condition of anonymity. Andrew Schwartzman of Media Access Project, which also met with FCC, said Tues. that part of problem was that Commission years ago ceased to collect data on ownership and subscription levels, and public interest groups no longer had access to such information. Congress mandated that FCC institute rules, not that public must make case for them, he said. Schwartzman, who wasn’t on panel and was reached by phone, also suggested industry would present such information in light that best supported its own case. NCTA spokesman said: “That’s what people do, they take information that they have access to and advocate the best case that they can for themselves and we expect everyone involved in this to do that.” He stressed that FCC proceedings were “open and public process” and all parties could comment.
Ferree said new working group on media ownership policy announced recently (CD Oct 30 p4) would take on much of task of gathering data. Commission will continue “putting some pressure on the industry and public” to provide data, he said, but also would do much “internal work” to justify its rules, especially since U.S. Appeals Court, D.C., in Time Warner v. FCC, struck down 30% horizontal and 40% vertical ownership caps, saying Commission hadn’t justified its numbers (CD May 17 p8). “We are not going to just sit on our hands now and wait for… good data from the public. We're actually going to go out and do some independent work, be fairly aggressive about this,” Ferree told audience of 60.
While welcoming Ferree’s comments, several public interest group representatives said they were skeptical about possible bent of data gathered by Bush-appointed Commission that often had indicated wish to allow “market forces” to determine outcomes. “Depending on how you ask the question, collate it and present it will justify small, medium or large results,” Schwartzman said. -- Brigitte Greenberg
Schwab Conference Notebook…
EchoStar official said Congress members had “been quite positive actually” about proposed merger of EchoStar and DirecTV. David Goodfriend, dir.-legal and business affairs for EchoStar, said elected officials “get it” and understand merger would create efficiencies that would allow DBS to compete more effectively with cable and mitigate interference issues neighbors sometimes encounter when they subscribe to different satellite services. Goodfriend also said “there aren’t really plans” for merged company to become programmer, so he expressed interest in FCC’s extending its rules prohibiting exclusive contracts between cable companies and affiliated programmers.
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FCC Comr. Martin said Commission was trying “to get back to neutral” in enforcing its rules. Implying that previous Commission under Democratic Administration had favored some industries over others, he said current Commission wouldn’t “pick winners or losers or pick certain technologies.” Martin also said nation needed “a more coherent spectrum policy” because currently issues were divided among several federal agencies.