FCC Extends Deadline for Cable Ops to Appeal Fines

On Tuesday, the Federal Communications Commission extended the deadline for cable operators to pay or appeal fines for failing to provide sufficient information to the commission in its investigation of the migration of channels from analog to digital, changing rates without sufficient notice, and more. The new deadline is now march 20. The initial FCC investigations were in response to complaints from Consumers Union and others that operators were migrating channels from analog to digital without lowering the price of the analog tier and in some cases raising it. Cable operators have been trying to get their customers to move to digital to free up bandwidth for advanced services, including migrating channels.