Martin: FCC Needs To Move on Cable Caps

MARTIN: FCC NEEDS TO MOVE ON CABLE CAPS
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
FCC Chairman Kevin Martin said Wednesday that the FCC needed to move on its year-long review of cable ownership caps. In a meeting with reporters after the FCC's annual review of the previous year, Martin pointed out that the proceeding was opened in 1999, and said he had told his colleagues on the commission that it should either proceed to conclusion on the item as a stand-alone or, if the issues were similar enough, roll it into the ongoing media ownership proceeding. Chairman Martin had not timetable for when the ownership proceeding would be completed, pointing out that the FCC had held just 2 of six planned field hearings and still had 10 studies to deal with, though he said that he was looking to hold the next hearing in February, if possible, and that the studies should be completed this spring. Chairman Martin said he was fine with either dealing with cable as a stand-alone or rolled into the larger proceeding, but that it was time to do something on cable ownership. When asked why the FCC didn't have a Y2K-like plan in case the DTV transition hits a snag and viewers could lose service after the hard date of Feb. 17, 2009, Martin said he thought the FCC had taken steps. He cited his push for multicast must-carry, though not directly, saying "trying to make sure that all free, over-the-air broadcasting should be carried by the other platforms is one of the ways we make sure to ease that transition to digital broadcasting."
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