HomeVideo Savant Weekly Rewind: FCC Chairman Picking Cable TV Fight?
Weekly Rewind: FCC Chairman Picking Cable TV Fight?
Written by Video Savant
Saturday, 17 November 2007
Federal Communications Commission Chairman Kevin Martin told the New York Times last weekend that he believes the cable television industry is now subject to increased regulatory scrutiny under the so-called 70/70 rule. This 1980s-era provision kicks in when cable television becomes available to more than 70 percent of homes nationwide, with 70 percent of those capable of receiving it actually subscribing to it.
I'm not a statistician, but it's difficult to understand how this regulatory wrinkle has suddenly come into play in a pay TV environment where cable television's market share has progressively shrunk in light of satellite TV gains over the past decade. And now there's even more competition to cable TV, with the arrival of teleco TV providers such as Verizon and AT&T.
Don't look now, but no one is running to the defense of Chairman Martin's prototype pocket calculator-cum-time machine.
More interesting is the speculation that Martin's 70/70 talk is designed to provide leverage that would aid him in making another run at mandating an "a la carte" pricing system onto cable TV providers -- "a la carte" would allow consumers to select and pay for only the channels they wish to view.
Although Martin has said he's not focusing on "a la carte," the 70/70 saber-rattling is widely viewed as an attempt to gain leverage over the cable industry in this and other upcoming regulatory battles.
In other news this past week: A suit has been filed against Comcast in light of its alleged "filtering" of certain types of Internet traffic generated by its ISP subscribers... The FOX Television network is suggesting that FCC-mandated public service announcements regarding the upcoming change to digital broadcasting may be illegal and unenforceable... ZDNet is reporting that YouTube plans to begin offering HD video during the first quarter of next year...
Home Theater Magazine presents test findings that show when it comes to detail in moving images, not all 1080p HDTVs are created equally... Congress is preparing an education funding bill that includes a provision that could result in federal funds being withheld from universities that fail to provide education and paid alternatives to illegal file-sharing of music by its students... Warner Home Video said it has no current plans to issue dual-format Total HD discs...
Sony is reporting that sales of its beleaguered PlayStation 3 gaming console have doubled following recent price cuts... Netflix still wants to improve its "suggestions" algorithm, but say no one has achieved the 10% accuracy improvement needed to claim the $1 million prize it's offering... And whatever happened to George Jetson and all the cool Jetsonian home conveniences we expected to be using by now?
Read these and all of the rest of the past week's interesting home entertainment developments by picking and clicking through the news summaries below.
Video Savant 
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