The cable TV industry is up in arms about the assertion by the FCC that it has new regulatory powers over the industry. The assertion is based on a 1984 law that says if 70 percent of U.S. households have access to cable, the law can be applied.
The law is simply that the FCC can take more oversight of the industry.
What is being disputed isn't the law, but the 70 percent number being reached at this time.
Kyle McSlarrow, National Cable and Telecommunications Association (NCTA) president said about the numbers: "Every independent analysis of the marketplace shows that cable serves less than 70 percent of the nation's households and even the FCC staff concluded last year that cable was well short of this threshold."
McSlarrow is referring to the annual report of the FCC which says the industry now serves a minimum of 70 percent of U.S. households that have access to cable.
McSlarrow added that the FCC is "twisting statistics in order to breathe life" into the 1984 law.
An analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein & Co, Craig Moffett also disagreed with the FCC's annual report saying that only about half of the 54 percent of homes that have cable access subscribe to it. Moffett believes the FCC has declared an "open war on the cable industry."
Some consumer advocates have pressured the FCC to simply declare that cable-TV subscriptions have reached the so-called 70/70 level.
If this is a declaration based on facts, they have a legitimate case, if it's not, to me it's an abuse of power by the FCC - no matter what the reasons are. Either the 70/70 threshold has been met or not; nothing else should be included in the decision.
A vote on whether to adopt the report will occur on November 27, according to an unnamed person close to the situation.
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