I had no idea this was going on. At the Sept 11 meeting the FCC will be talking about program-tying on cable. In a nutshel, if you want Fox News you gotta take FX and vice-versa type relationships. I always thought tying was a per se violation of the Sherman act that was winked at due to the courts using their own judgement (basically, it is wrong if the courts say it is, other wise it isn't- sounds fair, right?). The FCC is now looking into this and I wonder if they will apply a less flexible standard than the courts have. What would be the fallout? Would it really kill BET, Hispanic channels and Logo- or would it just kill off Fox Reality and MSNBC? My thinking is that the FCC should make program tying illegal in cable markets and find other ways to encourage minority programming in cable monopolies. Tying is a problem.
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FCC to investigate programming tying in cable
- Thread starter robbbc
- Start date
I would be in favor of a Canadian-style regulation in this area. Prohibit program suppliers from tying any one channel to any other channel. Also prohibit MVPD (Cable, satellite, IPTV, etc.) from carrying more than 10-25% of channels that they own or hold a greater than 25% interest in. And, any channel owned by an MVPD that does anything besides provide program guide data should be offered to any other MVPD that wants to carry it at an open market wholesale rate.
And, I think consumers should at least have the choice of picking from themed packages, but with a rule that requires 75% of the channels in a package to carry the same type of programming at least 75% of the time, or any channel not meeting that standard automatically becomes available on an a la carte basis at a 25 percent premium over the theme package price divided by the number of channels in that package. (I.E. if a Music Video Channel package contained MTV, but MTV did not have Music Videos 75% of the time, then if the package cost $10 and contained 10 channels, MTV would automatically be available separately for $1.25.) This would prevent programmers or distributors from generating "lock-in" by grouping one or two desired channels with a bunch of unrelated material.
Also, I would require that under such a tiered system, that any tier containing channels that air programming rated higher than TV-PG more than 10 percent of the 24 hour broadcast day, or more than 5 percent of the 6 am - midnight period, would also have to be offered in a cheaper version that did not contain such "TV-PG+" channels.
And, I think consumers should at least have the choice of picking from themed packages, but with a rule that requires 75% of the channels in a package to carry the same type of programming at least 75% of the time, or any channel not meeting that standard automatically becomes available on an a la carte basis at a 25 percent premium over the theme package price divided by the number of channels in that package. (I.E. if a Music Video Channel package contained MTV, but MTV did not have Music Videos 75% of the time, then if the package cost $10 and contained 10 channels, MTV would automatically be available separately for $1.25.) This would prevent programmers or distributors from generating "lock-in" by grouping one or two desired channels with a bunch of unrelated material.
Also, I would require that under such a tiered system, that any tier containing channels that air programming rated higher than TV-PG more than 10 percent of the 24 hour broadcast day, or more than 5 percent of the 6 am - midnight period, would also have to be offered in a cheaper version that did not contain such "TV-PG+" channels.
a la carte all-the-way baby ! ! ! ! ! ! !
I'll take The Weather Channel and cherry pick the others.
I will STILL end up Less than $30/Month ---
I hope this totally screws Viacom's MTV Networks ! !
I do not need someone in the corporate boardroom of Time-Warner or Comcast deciding which bundled package would "be right for me".....
A-LA-CARTE is coming your way . . . . ;D
I'll take The Weather Channel and cherry pick the others.
I will STILL end up Less than $30/Month ---
I hope this totally screws Viacom's MTV Networks ! !
I do not need someone in the corporate boardroom of Time-Warner or Comcast deciding which bundled package would "be right for me".....
A-LA-CARTE is coming your way . . . . ;D
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