Powell: FCC’s Cable Stance ‘Relentless’

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Michael_PowellFormer FCC Chairman Michael Powell and now head of the National Cable Telecommunications Association says regulators are stifling the cable industry’s progress.


“The policy blows we are weathering are not moderate corrections, they are thundering tectonic shifts” that are dramatically changing the industry, he told attendees of the Internet & Television Expo on Monday.

Powell discussed the commission’s proposals to toss existing special access regulations that will affect business service rates and the direct-to-consumer streaming proposal that will “unbundle valuable content and hand it to companies that don’t protect content,” reported FierceCable.

The commission’s “unlock the box” set-top box proposal and plans to reform retransmission consent are also some of the major cable issues pending before the FCC.

“Most troubling is [regulators’] view that the communications market is bifurcated. Internet providers are allowed to roam free, but network providers … must be shackled” by regulations, Powell said.

2 COMMENTS

  1. Odds are, if the cable companies weren’t greedy, monopolistic, uncaring entities, who continually try to find ways to squeeze every cent from their customers, the regulations wouldn’t be that stringent. There used to be a website http://www.comcastmustdie.com, and you wouldn’t believe the dozens and dozens of consumer horror stories there. I’m sure you have your own, as well as I do, which is why I am now an Over The Air viewer.

    • I fully agree with Scott’s comment, having become a cordkiller due to the consumer unfriendliness of my local cable monopoly, Comcast (or as my neighbors refer to, Concrap).

      Cable companies have had it too good for a long, long time. Poor service, outrageous rates and deteriorating infrastructure doesn’t say much about the industry, let alone a former FCC Chairman getting a plum job – whose palm was getting greased when he was at the commission? I wouldn’t be sad to see the cable companies get what they really deserve.

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