Imposing DTV must-carry on cable would violate First Amendment an...

Imposing DTV must-carry on cable would violate First Amendment and Fifth Amendment prohibition on “taking” property, Cablevision Systems said in latest comment on rulemaking (98-120). It said DTV must-carry “would place the broad diversity of programming offerings that cable consumers currently enjoy in extreme peril.” It said it invested billions of dollars in upgrading systems, but bandwidth already was fully utilized. American Cable Assn. said there was “serious malfunction” in market since TV networks were tying retransmission consent to requirements to carry “unwanted programming.” Group asked for FCC investigation into retransmission consent, and prohibition on nondisclosure obligations imposed by networks. Fox affiliates said FCC should reverse earlier decision not to require dual carriage, saying cable operators had “stranglehold” on DTV transition. As result, affiliates said, “only those companies with significant economic leverage have any chance of securing carriage of their digital signal.” They said DTV must-carry would survive court scrutiny because it was narrowly tailored. If FCC doesn’t think it has authority to impose DTV must-carry, affiliates said, it should ask Congress for legislation. Disney said multicasting was among DTV technologies that would “transform the way consumers relate to and interact with television,” and most recent FCC decision wouldn’t guarantee all multicast channels would be carried on cable: “Unless the Commission alters its present construction of the must-carry statute, consumers likely will be denied the benefits of diverse enhanced digital services that broadcasters otherwise could provide.”