FCC's Martin Aims Parting Shot At Cable Industry

Kevin Martin closed his chairmanship of the FCC with hundreds of thousands of dollars in proposed fines against cable operators for failing to provide sufficient information to the Commission in its investigation of the migration of channels from analog to digital, changing rates without sufficient notice, and more. Hit with the fines were a who's who of cable operators, including Comcast, Time Warner, Cablevision, Charter, Cox, Comcast, Bright House, and Harron. The investigations were in response to complaints from Consumers Union and others that operators were migrating channels from analog to digital without lowering the price of the analog tier and in some cases raising it. Martin said in the letter that the FCC had gotten almost 600 complaints from cable subscribers. Martin called the practice "unacceptable." In a letter to Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) and ranking member Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Tex.), Martin said it had been "Unacceptable" that nine of 13 cable companies "did not provide the Commission with all of the information we requested," saying it had inhibited the investigation.