Senate Takes Hard Look at Video Marketplace

The Senate Commerce Committee held a hearing on the changing video marketplace, with representatives from top trade association chiefs, Free Press, and Nielsen. The hearing looked at the video marketplace's change from appointment content on TV sets, to "how, where and when" content on a variety of devices. Everyone was in agreement that the video marketplace had changed dramatically while the laws had not, but whether to start from scratch or modify existing laws--like STELAR and the 1992 Cable Act--generated a lot of different opinions. NCTA - the Internet & Television Association President Michael Powell discussed the need to look anew at video marketplace laws and regulations. He told Sen Ed Markey (D-MA) that NAB supports his True Fees Act, which would require cable to advertise the "true" cost of service, waive early termination fees if subscribers wanted to drop service after a price increase, and mandate price disclosures in cable bills. Free Press president Craig Aaron--who also supports Sen Markey's bill--put in a plug for a la carte programming, the return of network neutrality rules, and an end to retransmission blackouts, consolidation, and broadcast ownership deregulation that abets it.