Cable access channels jeopardized by FCC

In an innocuous-sounding "rule change" to the Communications Act of 1984, the Federal Communications Commission would allow cable providers to deduct "in-kind" services from a local franchise fee to municipalities required by the Act, specifically a maximum five-percent levy on gross revenues. "In kind" is currently a term without a clear definition, and in a particularly diabolical twist, the FCC plans to leave it to the cable companies to determine the monetary value of such nebulous services (and exactly what those services are) before deducting that value from their mandated fee. Without a check applied by the federal government the cable giants can't be trusted to do anything other than what benefits them financially. 

Clearly, the FCC under the Trump administration is no friend of consumers (Chairman Ajit Pai, for example, used to be a Verizon lobbyist), and this latest proposed action typically ignores the damage it might do to the public's interest in favor of awarding more profits to industry fat cats. We encourage Sen Ed Markey (D-MA), as well as members of the public, to create a situation where it becomes politically untenable for the FCC to more forward with its unfair and confiscatory plan.