Agency majority wants more detective work.
The Federal Communications Commission put off voting on a controversial finding in its annual report on competition in the cable industry, according to Bloomberg.
The finding would have triggered more regulatory authority, including the power to stop Comcast and Time Warner from bundling dozens of worthless channels that consumers don’t watch or want and charging out the wazoo for them. FCC chairman Kevin Martin said he’ll get more data from cable companies and reschedule the vote for a few months from now.
Don’t expect Blawgletter to hold our breath.
The FCC staff will rewrite the annual report to delete the stuff about whether or not at least 70 percent of the more than 70 percent of people who have access to cable actually subscribe to it.
We suspect that the 70/70 rule may serve as a proxy for proof that Big Cable controls half of all American subscribers.
Regardless of the 70/70 editing, we can hardly wait to see the final product. It should include lots of juicy evidence on the growing might of Comcast and Time Warner anyway. The truth will out!
Barry Barnett
