Barton, Upton 'Disturbed' By Martin's Cable Agenda

BARTON, UPTON 'DISTURBED' BY MARTIN'S CABLE AGENDA
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
Former House Commerce Chairman Joe Barton (R-TX) and former House Telecom Subcommittee Chairman Fred Upton (R-MI) have asked FCC Chairman Kevin Martin to lay off the cable industry when it comes to "additional, unnecessary and burdensome regulations." The Congressmen wrote Chairman Martin on Tuesday saying they are "disturbed that with respect to the cable industry, you appear to be making proposals that are leading the Commission precisely down the road of intrusive regulation when it is least justified." Their concerns include Chairman Martin's push for a la carte cable pricing, mandatory cable carriage of TV station's multicast digital signals, a new plan to require cable to carry TV stations in both digital and analog after the DTV transition, his insistence that the FCC hold to its July 1 deadline for banning integrated cable set-top boxes, reports he plans to reimpose a 30% national cap on one cable company's subs, and plans to allow stations to lease digital capacity to women and minorities, who would then get mandatory cable carriage for the channels they create.
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6436156.html

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