Martin Touts Cable A La Carte, Regulation

[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: PJ Bednarski, John M. Higgins and Mike Grebb]
The Senate Commerce Committee’s “Open Forum on Decency” on Tuesday turned into a face-off between FCC Chairman Kevin Martin and NCTA chief Kyle McSlarrow, with Martin calling for one of the industry’s most feared mandates, that cable programming be sold on an a la carte basis. Chairman reported that FCC Chief Economist Leslie Marx analysis of a la carte pricing counters the Commission’s previous stance that forcing cable systems to sell all programming on a per channel basis -- as they sell pay movie networks like HBO and Showtime -- would substantially increase consumers' costs because operators and networks would have to raise prices. Chairman Martin said that the old report prepared under then-FCC Chairman Michael Powell by the FCC Media Bureau “makes mistakes in its basic calculations” and is based on “incorrect and biased analysis.” A new report to be issued by commission staff soon shows that a la carte “could be economically feasible and in consumers’ best interest.” McSlarrow, president of the National Cable & Telecommunications Association, came out Tuesday morning clearly against a la carte, tiering or indecency regulations for cable. McSlarrow said the Supreme Court has “very clearly” ruled in the past that any restrictions of that sort would be a violation of the First Amendment.
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6287567?display=Breaking+News&referral=SUPP
(free access for Benton's Headlines subscribers)

* Martin: New FCC Study Favors a la Carte
http://www.multichannel.com/article/CA6287703.html?display=Breaking+News