Cablevision kindly takes on ESPN vs FCC on a la carte

Washington—"The Walt Disney Co. went on the offensive Wednesday to halt Cablevision System Corp.'s effort to push the Federal Communications Commission into

• restricting Disney's ESPN from demanding access to the vast majority of cable subscribers.

The Disney-Cablevision fight comes just weeks before FCC chairman Kevin Martin is expected to step down, ending a four-year period in which

• Martin attacked cable operators and programmers for not allowing subscribers

• to buy channels on an individual or a la carte basis....

"Cablevision strongly supports chairman Martin's efforts to put out for public comment this significant proposal, which would allow programming distributors to have the flexibility to develop innovative packages and enhance customer choice and value. Cablevision believes this proposal would benefit consumers, is important for the future of the industry and should be issued for comment by the [FCC]," Cablevision spokesman Jim Maiella said Wednesday afternoon.

• Dolan has also advanced arguments in support of an a la carte business model, but Cablevision hasn't attempted to implement that strategy with its own programming division, Rainbow Media Holdings, which distributes AMC, IFC, Sundance Channel and WE tv....

Cablevision's new alliance with Martin comes after the company in September

• hired its first full-time permanent lobbyist in Washington, D.C. in many years,

• scooping up one of Martin's closest aides, Catherine Bohigian.

• The value of the Bohigian-Martin connection to Cablevision is certain to change once Martin steps down when the Obama administration takes power on Jan. 20.

• Nevertheless, Cablevision should be able to maintain access to Obama's FCC chairman. David Ellen, Cablevision’s executive vice president and general counsel for cable and communications,

• attended Harvard Law School with Obama and succeeded him as president of the Harvard Law Review.

Cablevision's efforts at the FCC have opened a sharp division within the cable industry, making it

• difficult for the industry to speak with a single voice in its regulatory advocacy."...

(Jason Whitlock on ESPN): "I believe the World Wide Leader is the most evil and destructive force in the sports world. It has driven and hastened

• the destruction of authentic, independent, democratic,
• courageous sports journalism.

• ESPN is the enemy of the truth,

• and all who believe a pursuit of the truth is the lifeblood of a genuinely free society must stand

• against the Wal-Mart-ization of sports journalism."...

Tweet Stumbleupon StumbleUpon