AOL Time Warner bid for FCC ruling on electronic program guides (...
AOL Time Warner bid for FCC ruling on electronic program guides (EPGs) is “backdoor tactic” designed to “bias” agency’s expected decision on DTV must-carry, Gemstar Chmn. Henry Yuen said in ex parte letter to FCC Chmn. Powell. Yuen said…
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Commission decision allowing TW to strip EPG information from broadcast signals it carried would “bring significant harm” to more than 5 million consumers who bought analog TVs and VCRs that contain EPG capability and would seriously harm competition because manufacturers and retailers no longer would be able to build and sell such sets. Despite its request for declaratory ruling on EPG, TW has “expressed little or no interest” in actually stripping out EPG information, Yuen said, and in fact is contractually prohibited from doing so: “Its aggressive push for a declaratory ruling is obviously not motivated by any real need for resolving any analog carriage dispute… [Its] true intent is clearly about establishing a precedent that will influence future decisions on digital carriage issues.” He said granting TW request now “would be extremely adverse to public policy and prejudice the important issues at stake in the digital must-carry proceeding.”