NCTA: Record Shows Cable Deserves US Effective Competition Deregulation; Hispanic Group Disagrees
The FCC record backs the agency's proposal to presume cable operators face effective competition nationwide, with cable competitors' market share exceeding 15 percent penetration in every designated market area, NCTA said in an ex parte filing. "It is unsurprising that…
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the Media Bureau has granted virtually every effective competition petition that a cable operator has filed in the last several years." Operators likely haven't sought deregulation in the remaining franchise areas where an effective competition order hasn't been granted "because they are deterred by the cost and other burdens of gathering information" to make such requests, the association said. "Opponents of reversing the presumption provided no evidence of consumer harm" in the 10,000-plus communities the bureau has found face effective competition, the group said of lobbying conversations its executives had with aides to FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler and Commissioners Mignon Clyburn and Ajit Pai. The filing was posted Tuesday in docket 15-53, where the next day a Hispanic Institute filing was posted saying the group opposes the proposed rule. "In communities where the Commission has determined effective competition does not exist, the current rules offer a backstop that helps ensure low rates for the basic tier of cable TV service," it said. The last time the group made an FCC filing itself and not with others, according to the agency's database, was in 2011 to say that it backed AT&T's buy of T-Mobile, a deal the companies later abandoned amid FCC and Department of Justice concerns. The Hispanic Institute is a member of TVFreedom.org, TVFreedom.org's website said. TVFreedom.org's members also include broadcasters and it's at odds with pay-TV interests over carriage issues. NAB is among those opposing the effective competition NPRM (see 1504170063). "Over the course of the last year, The Hispanic Institute had called for accessibility and affordability of the basic tier and video market reforms that account for the needs of Latino and Spanish-speaking television viewers," noted its new filing. “The effective competition rule as it stands is a critical consumer protection for low-income and minority communities," said Hispanic Institute President Gus West in a written statement responding to our questions Wednesday about the group's funding and involvement in the effective competition proceeding. "By changing the presumption, the FCC would give cable providers the ability to manipulate their programming tiers so that customers would be forced to pay for expensive cable programming before they can access local broadcast TV stations, curtailing consumers' access to lifeline information."