Martin: Expanded Basic a Tying Arrangement

MARTIN: EXPANDED BASIC CABLE A TYING ARRANGEMENT
[SOURCE: Multichannel News, AUTHOR: Ted Hearn]
Federal Communications Commission Chairman Kevin Martin said Thursday that cable’s expanded-basic tier is a “tying” arrangement because consumers are denied refunds for channels they either block or refuse to watch. Chairman Martin, who supports the a la carte sale of cable channels, told Wall Street analysts cable's most popular programming tier is not an example of bundling in an economic sense because none of the channels is available for sale outside of the tier. Instead, he added, expanded basic is an example of commercial tying. “Tying is taking things that are sold separately and stopping selling them separately and only selling them together in a bundle,” Martin said. “Tying is what’s occurring in the cable industry, and that’s different from just bundling.”
http://www.multichannel.com/article/CA6372384.html?display=Breaking+News