Cable Operators Seek To Broaden Martin Plan

Charter Communications, Mediacom Communications, and Cequel Communications want Federal Communications Commission Chairman Kevin Martin to broaden his proposal designed to give small cable operators relief from rules mandating the duplicative carriage of some local TV signals. Martin’s plan, announced in early April at the American Cable Association’s annual DC summit, included relief for cable systems with 552 MHz of capacity or less. Last week, the three cable companies said relief should also include systems with up to 5,000 subscribers or “some other threshold deemed suitable.” The scope of Martin’s proposal should expand, the MSOs said, because they and other cable operators have systems with 750 MHz of capacity that have not been upgraded to digital and do not have the subscriber base to justify doing so.
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