Martin Doesn't Expect Another Wilmington
FCC chairman doesn't expect other markets to pull plug on analog service early, as Wilmington, N.C., will do Sept. 8.
By John Eggerton -- Broadcasting & Cable, 8/6/2008 8:08:00 AM
Federal Communications Commission chairman Kevin Martin said he doesn't expect any other markets to pull the plug on analog service early, as most of the stations in Wilmington, N.C., agreed to do Sept. 8.
He added that no decision has been made as to whether to appeal the reversal of the Janet Jackson fine.
That was the word from Martin in an interview for C-SPAN's The Communicators.
Martin said he was "knocking on wood" and hoped that the early digital-TV switch in Wilmington was going to go OK, adding that the FCC put a lot of effort into educating and helping the market.
Martin said general awareness of the DTV transition went from the 30% range to the 80% range in the past year, but he asked for even more money from Congress.
He added that he still had no other volunteers for markets that would follow Wilmington’s lead and pull the plug early to help the FCC gauge the impact. Martin said there may be an opportunity to do some "mini-tests" with shorter-term shutoffs, but he did not think there would be another full-scale shutoff.
On the issue of indecency, Martin said no final decision has been made on whether to appeal the Third Circuit Court of Appeals' rejection of its fine over the Janet Jackson Super Bowl incident, but he reiterated that he was disappointed with the decision and again cited the "hundreds of thousands" of complaints the FCC received.
Martin pointed out that the Jackson incident spurred Congress to increase the FCC's fining authority -- tenfold to $325,000. "It would be somewhat ironic if that prompted Congress to increase our fining authority but the courts actually said we were not able to fine them for that instance," he said.
On media ownership, Martin said not to look for anything more from the FCC for the rest of the year. He instead pointed to the December decision to modify those rules. "I think we took some important steps to try to address it, but I don't anticipate the commission will take any other steps on media ownership in the next few months,” he said.
He did not mention that Monday (Aug. 4) was the deadline for filings by the couple of dozen parties opposing the FCC's December rule change in court.
Martin defended the FCC's decision on Comcast’s network management, responding to a letter from House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) suggesting that the decision "threatened to hijack the evolution of the Internet to everyone's detriment" and to the suggestion that Martin was trying to hammer the cable industry with new regulations.
"I think it was important for us to respond to complaints [that] consumers’ access to the Internet was being blocked or impeded," Martin said, adding that the FCC explicitly put in its order allowing Comcast and Time Warner Cable to divvy up Adelphia Communications that if either Comcast or Time Warner tried to degrade or block Internet access, consumers "could complain to us and we would take action.”
Martin said a la carte would continue to be an important issue, again citing the "almost" doubling of cable rates, which he laid at the feet of channel bundling.
