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from: NY Times

November 29, 2007
Size Limits for Cable Look Likely

By STEPHEN LABATON
WASHINGTON, Nov. 28 — Coming off a setback at the hands of the cable television industry, the head of the Federal Communications Commission moved to reassert himself on Wednesday by proposing that the commission quickly adopt a rule that would prevent Comcast, the nation’s biggest cable company, from becoming larger, commission officials said.

from: TV Newsday

Study Says Minority Media Ownership Down

November 28, 2007

Free Press today released Out of the Picture 2007, an update of the group’s Out of the Picture study completed last year that assessed female and minority ownership of commercial broadcast TV stations. The new data, Free Press says, suggests that the future of minority TV station ownership is in jeopardy.

from: Broadcasting and Cable

Senate Commerce Committee Tees Up FCC-Blocking Bill

Media Ownership Act of 2007 Would Prevent Martin’s Dec. 18 Cross-Ownership Vote

By John Eggerton
Broadcasting & Cable, 11/27/2007 4:23:00 PM

The Senate Commerce Committee set Dec. 4 as the date to mark up (amend, debate and perhaps vote on) a bill that would effectively block Federal Communications Commission chairman Kevin Martin from holding a Dec. 18 vote on relaxing the newspaper-broadcast cross-ownership ban.

from: Wet Machine

Quick On Cable: Martin and Copps Pull Out A Partial Win By Persuading Adelstein To Meet Them Halfway

Well, I'll have a lot more to say over the next few days. And there were a bunch of very good Orders that came out on other subjects, like Low Power FM and mandatory disclosure requirements for broadcasters. But here's the summary:

from: Reuters

FCC backs away from cable regulation plan

By Reuters
Published: November 27, 2007, 7:30 PM PST

WASHINGTON--The Federal Communications Commission on Tuesday backed away from a proposal by the agency's chairman that would open the door to broader regulation of cable TV operators.

from: NY Times

November 28, 2007
Cable Wins Compromise on F.C.C. Plans

By STEPHEN LABATON
WASHINGTON, Nov. 27 — In the face of a lobbying blitzkrieg by the cable television industry, the Federal Communications Commission drastically scaled back Tuesday evening a proposal by the agency’s chairman to more tightly regulate the industry, as a way to salvage the effort.

from: Wet Machine

Hot Bi-Partisan Action On Cable Part II — All Eyes On Adelstein As Cable Vote Nears

Posted By: Harold
So I spent a good deal of time in Part I explaining why 70/70, leased access, and the rest of it are necessary steps to curb cable market power. You can also see the back and forth between MAP and the cable guys on whether the 70/70 threshold is met (for those of us that actually care about the substance) either by going to the FCC's Electronic Comment search page and pluging in the docket number 06-189. Or you can check out what my friend Greg Rose has written on his blog. Because regardless of what you think the policy is, there is an actual empirical question here that — if we required cable companies to submit real subscriber numbers to the FCC rather than letting them file whatever the heck they want without any kind of verification or standard system of reporting — we would be able to answer.

from: MultiChannel News

Wall Street Analyst Refutes FCC Chairman’s Cable Math
Moffet Says 70% Cable Penetration Not ‘Mathematically Possible’

By Ted Hearn -- Multichannel News, 11/25/2007 11:35:00 PM

Washington – Wall Street cable analyst Craig Moffett told a Federal Communications Commission official last week that it was not “mathematically possible” that cable penetration of U.S. households is 70% or higher.

from: NY Times

November 27, 2007
NYT Editorial
Regulating Cable

In 1984, cable companies convinced Congress that they were mere minnows that needed to be exempted from many regulatory requirements so they could compete against the titans of broadcast television. That may have been true back then, but now cable companies are media titans, and they should be regulated. Today the Federal Communications Commission can take an important step toward that goal.

Lincoln's Legislative blog

Monday, November 26, 2007
UPDATE: The FCC’s Second Report and Order on Cable Franchising

On October 31, 2007, the Federal Communications Commission adopted a Second Report and Order in MB Docket No. 05-311, FCC 07-190, released November 6, 2007, that addressed whether findings and relief for new entrants, promulgated in the Docket’s First Report and Order, also known as the Section 621 Report and Order, should be extended to current cable service providers (“incumbents”). The FCC found the following: