NCTA: Martin confronts his cable critics

LAS VEGAS – The chairman came, he talked, he left.

But at least he showed up.

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Kevin Martin acknowledged at the beginning of his opening keynote address at The Cable Show here Monday that he is generally considered at odds with the cable industry right now over issues such as potential government rules regarding violence on TV, must-carry rules and other potential regulations.

The chairman chose to initially emphasize the issues on which he and cable agree – the industry’s broadband leadership, its willingness to invest and innovate to bring competition to consumers and its opposition to Net Neutrality rules. But he wrapped up his presentation by reiterating the strong opinions that have the cable industry a bit up in arms – with one exception.

Martin chose not to address the FCC’s recent report on television violence, released in April, which he was expected to mention. Some published reports claimed Monday that Martin had deliberately cut that section of his speech, but that was not confirmed.

Kyle McSlarrow, president and CEO of the National Cable & Telecommunications Association, did address the report in a press-conference following Monday’s General Session, calling it a “missed opportunity.”

“There was no real analysis in the report,” he said. “There was nothing that can usefully lead to recommendations.”

In its report, the FCC listed potential action Congress could take for both broadcast and cable, although it didn’t recommend a proscribed path. The problem with such regulations, McSlarrow said, is that they are routinely overturned in the courts for violating First Amendment rights to free speech.

“The violence report will go into the dust bin,” McSlarrow said. “This industry and others – broadcast and satellite – is working to address this problem. The real challenge is how do we give parents real choices and real control over what is watched in the home.”

Martin said his over-arching principal is to encourage competition to offer consumer choice, and that he followed that principal in backing the cable industry’s entry into broadband without taxes and without requirements for unbundling its networks for competitors. Following that principal also means going against the cable industry on issues such as a la carte sales of cable programming and offering multicast of analog and digital programming as the conversion to digital is made.

While other countries are trying to lure customers into the digital age with new services, “the U.S. is saying, get a converter box or your TV will go dark,” Martin said. He added that multicast and a la carte are two different sides of the same coin and the cable industry “can’t have it both ways.”

McSlarrow dismissed that thinking abruptly.

“I’m continually puzzled how you can equate a la carte and multicasting,” other than the fact they are both potential government mandates, he said. The bottom line, McSlarrow concluded, is that cable networks are privately built and funded and should not be subject to such government action.