FCC chair’s multicast plan draws more fire from Congress
June 8th, 2006FCC Chairman Kevin Martin’s move toward multicast must-carry has prompted what amounts to a rebuke from two senior Republicans.
An FCC decision to compel cable companies to devote additional channels to local broadcasters “would contradict two prior Commission decisions and usurp congressional authority,” Martin was told in a letter Wednesday from House Commerce Chairman Joe Barton (R-Texas) and Rep. Fred Upton (R-Mich.), chairman of the subcommittee on telecommunications and the internet.
Here’s how Kung Fu Quip describes the letter (under the headline “Pimp Slapped”):
It’s as close to a “what the hell are you thinking” note as I have ever seen.
The congressmen are not exactly congratulating Martin on his drive and initiative. Instead, they warn the FCC against presuming that the law setting the 2009 cutoff date for analog broadcasts affords the commission any new discretion to enact a multicast carriage rule:
If Congress had intended to require carriage of multiple streams, it would have explicitly done so either in the original must-carry provisions [of the Communications Act] or in the digital television provisions of the Deficit Reduction Act.
Martin apparently would like a multicast vote even before the commission’s next public meeting, now moved to June 21.
Earlier:
FCC should leave multicast must-carry to Congress, Stevens says
• Links: Kung Fu Quip: post and letter [pdf]; Broadcasting & Cable