Martin Has Eye On Cable Networks

Egged on by consumer groups and small cable operators, Federal Communications Commission Chairman Kevin Martin has the agency studying whether to prevent cable programmers from grouping channels in packages and then requiring their pay TV distributors to license either an entire package or nothing at all. Wholesale a la carte or bundling would mean, for example, that the industry's major programmers -- The Walt Disney Co., Viacom, Time Warner Inc., News Corp., NBC Universal -- would have to let cable operators and satellite providers purchase each channel on a standalone basis. Chairman Martin has said that wholesale bundling leads to higher retail cable rates because operators are required to license channels that they would prefer not to distribute -- a point repeatedly made by the American Cable Association, a trade group for small cable companies. At the same time, Chairman Martin has said that no one at the agency is working to develop wholesale a la carte rules. But few people believe that because Martin's staff continues to meet with proponents of new regulation.