05-28-1991 Council Packet - Laserfiche WebLink

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Cable TV Gets Utile Attention As Greene Considers Bell ’s request By Vincente Pwdeloup The C able Industtey turned out to be a I bystander in U.S District Court judge Harold Greene ’s hearings last week on Uie regional Bell holding companies' ef fort to begin providing infomution ser vices, including cable television. Greene administers the Modified Fi nal Judgement of the breakup of AT&T that forbids the regional Beils from offer ing information services, manufacturing equipment providing long-distance ser vice and indulging in anticompetitive practices. The Bells have challenged the consent decree of the judgment and the Court of Appeals for the Washington. D.C., circuit in 1990 asked the judge to review his decision on information ser vices. Tlte Bells* potential entry into cable was not mentioned during the hearing as the telcos and the Department of Justice on one side and Bell opponents — a broad coalition that includes cable, news paper publishers and consumers ■— on the other argued over the legal standards that the judge should use to review his decision. The Justice Department argued the restrictions should be lifted based a broad public interest standard. Stephen Shapiro, an attorney for the regional Bells, argued most information services that need to transmit qiiicklv go through radio-based technologies Those services include burglar alarms, stoi k quotations, credit card verilic.ition or CD-ROM disks. Tliey don’t use 'elephonc lines, thus nullifying the risk the Bells could engage in anti-conipct.tive pras- lices against them, he said. One observer said Greene seenied un moved by the arguments for changing his ruling. “You can never be sure altogether, but it seems that judge Greene is unlikely to change the restrict!*. said Philip Verveer. an attorney with the firm of Willkie. Farr & Gallagher. Verveer said, based on Greene ’s remarks at the hear ing, the judge appeared to have found no factual reason to change his mind. The debate has turned into a constitu tional law issue, pitting the executive branch — the Department of Justice — against the judicial branch. Verveer said. Greene ’s decision is expected by the end of the summer. His ruling likely will include defining the extent of his power, considering that the justice Department did a IPtVdegree turn in the dispute: In 198<). it became a proponent of the regional Bells ’ entry into information services, without provid ing an explanation for the change. Verveer said. NATOA Reports Tiering, Rate Hikes A Survey Of 184 city regulators by the MNalional Association of Telecommuni cations Officers & Advisors said one in four cable systems retiered basic service in 1990 and that over half the systems overseen by NATOA members raised rates by 10 percent or more last year. The survey, conducted in January 1991. aiM NATOA itMitrtwn mund the coun try 20 quoliotts rangmg from how many fra nchises are included in the regulator's jurisdiclioo to the number of compiainu re ceived yearly to rates and what kind of oompelilion exiala *ui franchise areas. David Olson, vice president of NATOA and director of Portia ’s office of cable communications and franchise manage ment. said the survey was designed to di^ some myths about dty regubtors. *There ’s some false assumptions about local regulators and we want to correct (hose assumptions.* he said. For instance, he said the survey showed that 91 percent of (he respon dents want competition wilhin iheir ser vice areas, but only 5 percent of those surveyed reported more than one cable operator in their community suggesting few overbuilds in the country. “It’s been assumed that local regulators have been a barrier to competition and this survey sets the record straight.* Olson said. Susan Herman. NATOA president and general ntanager of the Los Angeles De partment of Telecommunications, said, until competition arises for cable opera tors, *we need restored authority to pro tect cable subscribers who have no alter natives.* A spokesman at the National Cable Television Association said. "City regula tors (in the study) seemed preoccupied with keeping rates down with no regard to improvements in service or program ming. and that is precisely the problem with city council regulation of rales.* CABLE WORLD / April 29. 1991 FCC Requires In-Set Captioning By Vincente Paedeloup ____ Federal Communications Com- I mission has voted unanimously to require that all TV sets be equipped with built-in decoders for closed<ap- tioning by July 1993. The rules ensure that television manufacturers will commodate existing cable security techniques when designing decoder circuitry. Also, the design should al low (hat new scrambling and copy protection equipment for cable chan nels not interfere with the functioning of the closed<aption decoders. The FCC encouraged the National Cable Television Associa tion to exchange information with the Electronics In dustry Association. OaSCINCCOM- WASHMBTON PLAINTS: Tl. Jua- WWf tleo Oopartmont will have the prima ry responsibility for processing com plaints about obscene programming on cable and subscription television Cincluding by satellite and mktowave), according to an agreement signed with the FCC. KID VIDEO: Ww Comidl of Bettor Bualnoaa Biirea ua * advertising stan dards for children ’s programming are adhered to, according to a study spon sored Iqr the national businee organi zation. The study covered 10,000 com mercials that appeared on network af filiates, independent stations. Nick elodeon and the USA Network in sev- en markets. The cable networks showed fewer commercials than their competitors, airing more than six min utes per hour, compared to more than 10 minutes for the network affiliates and more than nine mmutea far the in dependent statkms. FTC COMIMOfT: In comments be fore the Federal Communications Commission ’s rule-making on effec tive competition, the PndnrnI Trn^ Commlaalon said a cable system ’s abil ity to provide improved broadca st sig nals can be a critical factor in calculat ing its market power when bask ser vice consists mainly of loesi broadcast channels. The FCC is scheduled to vote May 9 on effective competition.