Proposed FCC Rule Would Limit Comcast's Growth
A proposed FCC rule would limit ownership of cable systems in the US to 30%, effectively barring Comcast from aquiring any other large cable company. From the LA Times:
FCC Chairman Kevin J. Martin circulated the proposed ownership cap to other commissioners Monday, said Rudy Brioche, a legal advisor to Commissioner Jonathan S. Adelstein.Comcast currently controls 27% of the cable market. The last time the FCC proposed this cap they got laughed out of court.—MEGHANN MARCOThe proposal resurrects rules the agency has sought to impose since 1992, when Congress authorized limits. Federal courts have struck the FCC's efforts.
Proposed FCC rule would limit Comcast [LA Times]
(Photo: cmorran123)
This is a test using rich text formatting and html links. It's the generic "company" ad that should appear on all posts with the Company category if they don't have an ad attached to a specific company.
Post a comment
Comments:
perhaps they should get rid of all these crazy rules and lower the bar of entry so instead of 1 or 2 cable providers we have 10.
band-aids don't remove the blade from the knife.
Though I applauad the FCC for limiting Comcast's growth it makes me wonder where these people were when Cingular bought Bellsouth, and AT&T bought Bellsouth, so on and so forth. Now we are back to square one with Ma Bell running the show.
Government: You own too many cable systems!
Comcast: How many can we own?
Government: We can't tell you that. All we can tell you is that you own too many. Sell some or we will shut you down.
Yeah, like it's going to matter. Comcast monopoly....our rates go up.....Comcast unable to grow monopoly....rates raised to maintain revenue growth. Either way, without multiple competition, rates go up. Heck, we are starting to see Verizon in the area. Guess what???? Their rates are exactly the same as Comcast's.
But will it prevent them from acquiring more?
Cable TV is the biggest ripoff of them all. Can you imagine we all pay at least $50 a month to watch programming with advertising in it?
And why rates still increase with satellite competition is beyond me.
Nice move FCC... only about 10 years too late. Maybe you can try to limit ClearChannel's radio station ownership next year.
I wonder if the FCC will say the same thing to the phone companies (AT&T and Verizon) when they enter the video market across the nation with their proposed IPTV technology (already being launched in many parts of the country - including Texas, California, and Pennsylvania). I bet they let those campanies have more than 30% of the market since they have the deep pockets to pay for the lobbyists. The FCC is all political.
My goodness, JohnnySLC has a hilarious bit there. Reminds me of my experience with Comcast cept in reverse...
Comcast: Sentinel, you are downloading too much
Sentinel: How much is too much?
Comcast: If we tell you, we'd have to kil... errr... We can't divulge that to our customers.
Sentinel: Ok, terminate the HSI... now can you tell me?
Comcast: Burp. Tell you what?
Concast bought Media-One in my area and raised the rates with no upgrade in internet speed.The only reason i pay the 70 bucks a month is because they didn't install a filter on me so i get all the analog cable channels minus the movie channels.But this is my point---during commercials sometimes there will be 6 stupid comcash commercials in a row (they must own vehix.com too because there sandwiched in there also). This means they are using your cable fees to buy tons of airtime on commercials to advertise there services back to you.The amount they spend on advertising has got to be huge because i can flip through channels in between shows at say 7:59pm and multible stations will be running them. concash is really ripping us off ,im paying to watch adds for a cable provider i have to use anyway---cant have dishes on condo:(
Yeah! The fewer people who have to suffer Comcast the better!