Still Apart On A La Carte

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Kevin Martin is unlikely to win the support of Commissioner Robert McDowell on policies designed to force the sale of TV programming on a per-channel basis. A few weeks ago, Chairman Martin floated a new idea which would allow cable operators to exclude from their most widely purchased cable programming tier — expanded basic — to any network that charged a wholesale rate of 75 cents or more per month, per subscriber. Commissioner McDowell said he had doubts about the structure of Martin’s 75-cent plan. “My question for that [Martin proposal] was that it sure does seem like the sort of economic regulation that we heard he wasn't interested in,” Commissioner McDowell said. “If that’s offered up as a proposal, I’ll have a lot of questions regarding that.” Commissioner McDowell discussed trends in the video programming market in remarks at the Quello Communications Law and Policy Symposium. Consistent with prior statements, McDowell noted government-mandated a la carte was unnecessary because the market is already serving up tons of video in bit-sized portions. In February, he said, U.S. Internet users viewed 10 billion online videos. “I doubt that streaming video of prime-time’s most popular shows, companies with business models like Netflix and Vudu, and Web sites like Hulu and Joost would exist today if the government had tried to engineer them through regulation,” Commissioner McDowell said. “If the government starts imposing mandates regarding a la carte, will the result be that consumers will pay more and get less?”
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