Sachs rips nteractive TV interference

NCTA president/CEO Robert Sachs yesterday used the bully pulpit afforded as keynote speaker at the Society of Telecommunications Engineers (SCTE) Cable Tec Expo to blast attempts to regulate “yet-to-be-developed” interactive TV services.

Sachs expressed concern about an FCC Notice of Inquiry (NOI) on interactive TV soliciting comments as part of the Time Warner-AOL merger agreement, even though he does not believe it will result in any form of regulation.

“NCTA takes no issue with pure fact finding,” Sachs said. “But we consider regulation of yet-to-be-developed services to be counterproductive to their very development.”

The NOI is “like finding a dead shark in your swimming pool,” he said. “No immediate danger, but it would be foolish not to ask two questions: how did it get there, and what are the chances of seeing another one, alive?”

A live shark threatens cable because it could regulate a nascent technology, Sachs said. He targeted media “heavyweights” Disney and Viacom as spearheads for the potentially destructive regulations.

“These media giants want a guarantee that cable operators will carry any ITV services that broadcasters might develop sometime in the future,” Sachs said. “Never mind that most cable systems aren’t even offering ITV services today. Never mind that we don’t know what kind of services consumers will actually want to buy. Never mind the fact that it is presumptive to think that cable systems will be the only providers of future ITV services.”

The difference between the ITV brouhaha and ongoing efforts to legislate “open access” on cable’s high-speed networks is that interactive TV’s “menu hasn’t even been printed, but some are already demanding a free lunch,” he said.

Sachs also noted the irony that “Gemstar--the owner of TV Guide and the dominant provider of electronic program guides”--is seeking FCC help, although its services would be part of a basic ITV package.

“Ironically, as video-on-demand start-ups like Diva and InDemand struggle to obtain product from Hollywood studios, Disney-owned Buena Vista Television and Viacom’s Paramount Pictures refuse to make their first-run movies available to video-on-demand on cable,” Sachs said. “Should the government require Disney and Viacom to sell their first run movies to cable? Of course not. But neither should the government require cable operators to carry whatever ITV services these companies might develop in the future.”

A viable ITV market “needs to be driven by free market forces not the heavy hand of government regulation” which would only serve to discourage investment and slow deployment,” he said.