FCC Chairman will consider fewer rules for TV

Submitted by acohill on Wed, 06/08/2005 - 11:53

Here is an article [link no longer available] (registration required, unfortunately) that shows just how far off base both the FCC and the telcos are in their thinking.

Kevin Martin, the new FCC Chairman, says he will consider "fewer rules" for television regulation. Basically, the telcos want to deliver TV but don't want to do what the cable companies are required to do, which is to negotiate a franchise agreement with every town in America.

Both the FCC and the telcos are on the caboose, looking out the back window of the technology train. Here's what the FCC Chairman should be saying. "We don't regulate TV delivered over the Internet, and we encourage the telcos to use the Internet to deliver great TV shows." Here's what the telcos should be saying. "We think analog TV is dead, and we are not going to invest in outdated delivery systems. We're going to provide the best TV shows in the worlds, delivered in HD format for a crisp clear picture that far exceeds anything you can watch on your TV today, and we'll do it all over the Internet."

But the FCC wants to keep its finger in the regulatory pie instead of just throwing the pie out the window, so it wants to fiddle with outdated rules that justify the existence of the FCC, and the telcos are, well, just not very smart. It's an ugly picture.