Comcast Says Program Carriage Rules Need To Go

One of the nation's largest cable and Internet providers took issue with government rules on what channels cable companies must provide on Monday, even as vertical integration between media companies has led to calls for stronger regulation of pay-TV providers. Kyle McSlarrow, president of Comcast/NBC Universal Washington, D.C., published a blog post arguing the FCC's program carriage rules have become outdated and blasting a decision by an FCC administrative law judge last year that required the company to offer the Tennis Channel in its basic digital cable package alongside Comcast-owned sports channels. The judge's preliminary decision came after an extended legal dispute between Comcast and the Tennis Channel, which claimed Comcast was discriminating against it by placing it in its digital sports tier package. McSlarrow calls the decision "a breathtaking regulatory overreach" and expressed Comcast's hope that the full FCC will reject the decision.

Comcast claims the emergence of satellite companies like DirecTV and entrance of telecom firms like AT&T and Verizon into the pay-TV market have negated the need for onerous carriage rules. While other stakeholders have called for the government to strengthen those regulations, McSlarrow argues doing so could adversely affect the ability of cable companies to tailor their offerings to differing household budgets and interests. Comcast's argument hinges on its depiction of the pay-TV market as robust, offering consumers abundant choices. But that characterization would hardly seem accurate to the millions of customers that have little choice regarding their cable or satellite provider. Advocates of cable "unbundling" are also quick to accuse cable companies of being less than flexible when it comes to allowing consumers to pick only the channels they want, noting that some channels like ESPN comprise a significant portion of the monthly basic cable bill.

Invoking the names of AT&T and Verizon was particularly noteworthy, since the proposed Verizon-cable spectrum deal under review by the government has been labelled a non-compete agreement between the two sides by its opponents. Likewise, McSlarrow says that Comcast should be allowed to treat channels like the Tennis Channel differently than its own offerings, but argues that doing so does not in and of itself constitute discrimination. Such arguments were among the fears cited by opponents of the NBC Universal-Comcast merger, which gave one company control of the broadband and cable providers, as well as the local NBC outlets in some of the nation's largest media markets. Opponents feared Comcast would give preferential treatment to its own properties and find reasons to either pare back its offerings or raise prices, leaving consumers with little alternative.

McSlarrow's point that the emergence of the online video market should negate some of the requirements placed on cable providers appears to be a good one, until one actually surveys the landscape of choices available to consumers. In most markets, the dominant cable provider is also the primary Internet provider. Policies like data caps and throttling from ISPs have recently impeded the ability of online video services like Netflix to compete with cable providers, which have been accused of protecting one aspect of their business by restricting another. And content providers, like major cable companies and the national networks, have recently pulled back from offering their shows for free online. With so many media conglomerates seeking to shut down competition from the nascent online video space, it is clear that some sort of regulatory update will be needed in the coming years. Whether that update should loosen the rules on companies like Comcast ultimately comes down to whether one agrees with McSlarrow's view that consumers have real options when it comes to choosing a pay-TV provider.

Broadband Report, White Spaces on FCC Agenda: The FCC's open meeting on Thursday will be headlined by the Measuring Broadband America July 2012 report, which measures broadband performance and will include more regions and kinds of data than last year's inaugural report. Last year the report found most ISPs were living up to their advertised broadband speeds; this year it will be interesting to see if the data caps embraced by many ISPs have affected performance.

In addition, the Wireless Bureau will present a progress report on the development of white space technology, the unused spectrum between TV channels, to unleash more spectrum for wireless broadband. Finally, the Commission will discuss the latest advancements in mapping at the agency, including the launch of fcc.gov/maps and their use to promote data-driven decision-making.

Grassley Wants Answers on FDA Email Monitoring: Senate Judiciary Committee ranking Republican Chuck Grassley of Iowa plans to follow up on reports the FDA made efforts to monitor messages sent by whistleblowers to members of Congress and the White House. According to reports, the FDA secretly gathered thousands of private emails between employees and members of Congress, lawyers, journalists and others. The FDA acknowledged monitoring the accounts of five employees, and claims it did so because it believed confidential commercial trade information was being shared. The FDA said it didn't monitor the use of any non-government computers, but Grassley said the agency may have taken the passwords to employees' personal email accounts. He said doing so would have been illegal without a subpoena. Whistleblower complaints and disclosures to Congress are protected under a federal law meant to shield employees. Dems Want Hearing on Cellphone Tracking: Four Democrats on the House Energy and Commerce Committee wrote to that panel's leadership on Monday requesting a hearing on requests for cellphone user data by law enforcement. The letter comes just days after the major wireless carriers revealed they received more than 1.3 million requests for user records last year alone, raising serious concerns about privacy and potential surveillance. The lawmakers express particular concern about that rapid increase in the number of requests, which has increased at an annual rate of roughly 15 percent over the last decade. The letter was signed by Reps. Henry Waxman and Anna Eshoo of California, Diana DeGette of Colorado, and Edward Markey of Massachusetts. Yahoo Hires Former Googler Marissa Mayer: Yahoo announced Monday that it has hired Google executive Marissa Mayer as its new CEO. Mayer, 37, brings considerable buzz to the formerly formidable Web company, which has now been lead by five different CEOs in less than a year. Yahoo still possesses one of the largest audiences on the Web and has gained real traction as an online news service, particularly in areas such as sports. But the company's dismal financial performance has forced waves of negative headlines, plunging stock prices and thousands of layoffs. Mayer was the first female engineer at Google and was credited with helping mold the company's main search function. She is also an active fundraiser for the Democratic party.