NCTA’s McSlarrow Sees Continuing Troubles with Martin

National Cable & Telecommunications Association President Speaks at Association of Cable Communicators Event, Says Cable Will Never Satisfy FCC Chairman Martin

By John Eggerton -- Broadcasting & Cable, 4/1/2008 11:41:00 AM

National Cable & Telecommunications Association president Kyle McSlarrow said the key policy issue for his industry regardless of who becomes president -- he personally supports Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) -- will be broadband deployment.

In a speech to the Association of Cable Communicators, McSlarrow said the broadband push could go in two directions: toward focusing on serving underserved or unserved areas and for spurring private-sector investment -- which he would prefer -- or toward a host of issues like a la carte, must-carry and network neutrality, which he said are all under the rubric of unbundling.

McSlarrow said the cable industry's problems with Federal Communications Commission chairman Kevin Martin would likely continue, adding that there seems to be nothing cable can do where Martin does not move the bar on them. He cited the agreement between Comcast and BitTorrent to work out their network-management issues, which was followed by a statement from Martin that was still somewhat critical of Comcast.

But he pointed out that Martin was only one vote, and that the other commissioners and legislators were at the least open to the industry's arguments.

McSlarrow said he was not sure that the congressional push for an overhaul of the FCC would succeed in the current election year, but he would welcome some change to improve the agency's processes.

He praised his cable public-affairs-executive audience but still said he thought the industry had not yet "punched through" with a message "that sticks" about cable's importance as the key communications platform, video and otherwise, for the future.

The bad news, he said, is that issues like cable rates and a la carte will continue to be around, raised often by Martin. "There is no winning," he added.

Everyone wants to pay less and to choose what channels they pay for, he said, but cable has a good case to make for its rates in the value of service provided, which, he added, is better than broadcast and far more varied and voluminous than when prices were lower. An on a la carte, the point is that the channels they may not watch help pay for the ones they do.

He advised his audience to stay engaged, be patient and tell their story.

McSlarrow said he is troubled by the rise of "network management" as a term of art in the network-neutrality debate, adding that during initial debates on the topic, the criticism was that networks would block access to applications and sites. We didn't and we don't, he said.

Then the criticism became that we would try to impede competitors -- say, for streaming video in competition to cable video. We don't and we didn't, he added. Through all that, McSlarrow said, there was not question about our having to manage our networks. Suddenly, it has become the issue.

McSlarrow said it is essentially an old policy debate about network regulation, but when the term "Internet" is dropped, "it kind of makes people crazy." Looking to capture some of that fervor, he added that he would prefer "Internet regulation" to "network neutrality" to frame the debate.

McSlarrow said the FCC's hearing on network neutrality and Internet regulation in Boston recently showed that it was "way beyond the bounds" of its technical competence.