McSlarrow to Martin: ‘You Can’t Have It Both Ways’

NCTA President and CEO Kyle McSlarrow in his opening comments at The Cable Show on Tuesday offered a retort to FCC Chairman Kevin Martin’s speech in which he justified his thinking on a la carte programming, must-carry rules and lowering franchise barriers for telcos.

McSlarrow said he was “struck” by Martin’s discussion at the show Monday about mandated a la carte and multicast carriage.

“There are many reasons why neither of these ideas benefit consumers,” said the NCTA chief. “Just as a matter of logical consistency, think about what those ideas are for a minute. A la carte is a form of government-enforced unbundling of what is known as the expanded basic tier. Mandated multicast carriage produces exactly the opposite result. It forces the bundling of programming that apparently couldn’t make it in a free market.”

Mirroring the comments that Martin made Monday, McSlarrow continued: “You can’t have it both ways. You can’t insist that every channel is sold separately and other programming must be added to the expanded basic tier.”

Martin last month in House testimony said he’s behind the idea of requiring cablecos to offer programming on an a la carte basis and in smaller packages so subscribers aren’t forced to buy large program packages. There’s also been speculation in the industry that this stance is tied to decency concerns and the blocking of certain content from children.

However, on a separate front, he also supports bundling of programming to help ease broadcasters’ transition to digital TV.

Martin drew an analogy in his Cable Show speech between a la carte and the discussion on the TV industry’s transition to digital. In the latter case, Martin said he wanted the FCC to encourage broadcasters to multicast because offering more free channels would give consumers an incentive to get a conversion box or digital TV set. “The broadcasters said they could not sustain a business based on advertiser-supported multicast channels unless they knew the channels would be carried on the cable and satellite systems,” said Martin. “Your industry opposed mandatory carriage, saying that consumers should be able to pick and choose the channels they want, not having programming forced upon them. But if that’s really your belief, then it should hold true whether we are talking about broadcast channels or your own cable programming channels. You can’t have it both ways.”

Martin also talked a lot about how all his decisions are guided by the desire to create a level playing field to enable competition and benefit consumers.

But McSlarrow indicated it doesn’t make sense for regulators to step in to help telcos enter the video market when the multichannel business is already a competitive one.

“Over the last 10 years direct broadcast satellite providers have garnered 30 percent of the market,” said McSlarrow. “And what did we do? We competed by accelerating our digital cable rollouts, leading market deployment in high-definition television and introducing true interactive and on-demand services.

“This really isn’t complicated,” he continued. “When the government encourages growth and regulates with a light touch, competition works and consumers win. And when we recognize our responsibilities and put consumers first, we make that outcome more likely.”

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