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from: Broadcasting and Cable

Small Cable Ops Ask FCC for Blanket Exemption on Dual Carriage
American Cable Association Files with Federal Communications Commission
By Glen Dickson -- Broadcasting & Cable, 3/3/2008 11:37:00 AM

After months of public lobbying for less onerous digital-must-carry requirements, the American Cable Association filed with the Federal Communications Commission asking the agency to formally exempt the smallest and most bandwidth-starved cable systems from carrying both analog and digital versions of broadcasters’ signals.

from: Drew Clark

In Comcast vs. Verizon, Comcast is Down Two Counts
February 27th, 2008 · No Comments

By Drew Clark

Dominance in the broadband market is a battle of both technology and politics. Right now Comcast, America’s leading cable company, is losing on both counts.

from: Broadcasting and Cable

They're Back! Prometheus Asks Court to Vacate Ownership-Rule Change
Group Says Decision Was Arbitrary and Capricious and Beyond the FCC's Authority
By John Eggerton -- Broadcasting & Cable, 2/26/2008 4:27:00 PM

As promised, anti-media consolidation activists asked a federal court to throw out the Federal Communications Commission's recent media-ownership decision.

Note: We hear it's common practice for corporations and lobbyists to hire line waiters and seat warmers for Congressional hearings too - this is why you only see suits in the front rows of major hearings. Apparently democracy has a price . . .

from: Wet Machine

For the Clueless Among Us: Why Comcast Paying Folks to Attend FCC Hearing Is Wrong. I can't believe I actually need to explain this.

from: Media - Space - Place - Network

FCC En Banc: Annals of the Battle for the Last Mile
February 26th, 2008
Fred Johnson

Harvard Law School was “Markey Country” today as Massachusetts Congressman Ed Markey defended net neutrality in his opening remarks before the FCC’s Public En Banc Hearing on broadband network management practices in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Markey declared the US “no country for old bandwidth” and hung around to observe, with the rest of us, the FCC, “en banc” and securely enclosed in Harvard space droning through a tedious day of testimony and q&a, comfortably surrounded by an audience packed with polite but bored Comcast employees trained to provide applause on cue.

Comcast Threatens the Open Internet – FCC Hears Complaints
Last summer, users of Comcast internet services reported cut-offs and significant decreases in their download speeds when they were sharing large content such as video, audio and data files using a peer-to-peer sharing application known as Bit Torrent (www.bittorrent.com).

from: MultiChannel News

The Winds of Change
Potential Reform of FCC Could Go in Many Directions
by Ted Hearn -- Multichannel News, 1/28/2008

The House Energy and Commerce Committee is shining a spotlight on FCC chairman Kevin Martin’s management of the agency. (See “Watching the Martin Watch,” page 18, Jan. 21, 2008).

from: Consumer Affairs

House Committee To Probe FCC
FCC instructed to retain e-mail records for use by investigators

by Martin H. Bosworth
ConsumerAffairs.Com

January 10, 2008

Even as Federal Communications Commission (FCC) chair Kevin Martin was promising that his agency would investigate Comcast on charges of blocking Internet access, the House Energy and Commerce Committee announced its own plans to investigate the FCC's legislative rulemaking and rulings of late.

from: Lasar's Letter

Telco resists DTV notifications on phone bills
by Matthew Lasar Dec 14 2007 - 10:51am DTV transition

A major phone company threw the book at a proposal to require incumbent telcos to provide consumers with information about the upcoming DTV transition in their telephone and cable bills. Qwest's December 12th filing with the Federal Communications Commission claims the idea will cause "customer confusion" and violate the First Amendment.

from: Lasar's Letter

The Good FCC
by Matthew Lasar Dec 21 2007 - 11:22am Politics

On Tuesday, the Federal Communications Commission, by a bare majority, voted to lift its over three decade old prohibition against an entity owning a newspaper and a television station in the same market. Most FCC watchers will now shift their visors to Congress and the circuit courts, where media reform activists will doubtless turn in a bid to reverse this ruling.