Comcast Seen Winning Freedom to Raise Rates in Proposal at FCC

Apparently, cable companies such as Comcast would be free to raise customer rates without local government approval under a US regulator’s proposal. Cities, states and other localities would lose regulatory authority over basic programming packages under the plan from Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler, said two agency officials who requested anonymity because the proposal hasn’t been made public. Broadcasters say the change may leave cable providers free to exile TV stations from the basic cable package. The FCC said it wanted to ease a restriction adopted in 1993, before satellite broadcasters competed with cable and when many communities were served by only one pay-TV provider. Cable companies say the change eliminates needless red tape. Critics say protection is still needed.

The proposal is “contrary to the public interest,” the FCC’s Intergovernmental Advisory Committee said in a March 16 statement. “It’s just going to make things worse for consumers, not better,” said Gary Resnick, chairman of the advisory panel appointed by the agency chairman and made up of local, state and tribal officials. The proposal would remove protections including those that cap the price of a basic channel tier and equipment, require uniform rates across a locality, and make pay-TV and premium offerings more widely available, Resnick’s panel told the FCC. Broadcasters fear the change will let cable companies assign TV-station signals to pricier tiers, cutting the audience for local programming, said Dennis Wharton, spokesman for the National Association of Broadcasters trade group.