FCC Martin's Fall Offensive

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: dewayne () warpspeed com (Dewayne Hendricks)
Date: September 10, 2008 11:11:23 AM EDT
To: Dewayne-Net Technology List <xyzzy () warpspeed com>
Subject: [Dewayne-Net] FCC Martin's Fall Offensive

MARTIN'S FALL OFFENSIVE

Many in the cable-TV industry expect Federal Communications Commission  
Chairman Kevin Martin to make a final run at passing rules he has been  
passionate about, including an overhaul of the wholesale cable  
programming market. Observers say Chairman Martin has the agency  
poised to jump back into the a la carte imbroglio, make major changes  
to cable's program-access and program-carriage rules and could also  
require cable operators to pay hundreds of millions of dollars more  
each year to attach their wires to telephone poles. Martin's biggest  
enemy is the clock. If Sen Barack Obama (D-IL) is elected president,  
Martin would likely surrender his gavel to FCC Democrats Jonathan  
Adelstein or Michael Copps in January. If Sen John McCain (R-AZ) is  
the next president, Martin could be around late into next year,  
especially if McCain is preoccupied with more pressing political  
issues. Historically, it takes three or four months — and in the case  
of the Clinton administration, 11 months before Reed Hundt was on  
board — to get an FCC chairman appointed and confirmed," said Andrew  
Jay Schwartzman, president of public-interest law firm the Media  
Access Project. With McCain in the White House, however, Martin might  
not have the political support to enact new cable regulations that he  
did under Bush. That's one big reason cable executives are worried  
about Martin's agenda — especially in terms of a la carte issues —  
between now and Inauguration Day.

<http://www.multichannel.com/article/CA6593665.html>

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