Regulation: FCC and the courts
The Internet is in danger of becoming balkanized, as cable TV giants elect to create and favor their own programming and exclude independently produced material from their networks -- including work produced by former Vice President Al Gore, according to a 65-page report submitted on Oct. 25, 2005, to the Federal Communications Commission by a non-profit advocacy group, www.creativevoices.us.
The Center for Creative Voices’ 65-page report, Cable’s “Level Playing Field” – Not Level. No Field., documents the group's claim there is no “level playing field" in America’s cable industry today. Says CCV: "The door to independents is slammed shut so tightly that Al Gore, the Chairman of Current, a hot new cable network, resorted to leading a rally of 7,000 Current fans outside Comcast’s Philadelphia headquarters to demand that the nation’s largest cable operator carry Current more widely."
CCV says Gore's strategy hasn't worked, because Comcast, the nation’s largest cable operator, has embarked on a corporate strategy to control to the greatest extent possible the content that it distributes through its cable, whether via cable television or the broadband Internet. The CCV report asserts that Comcast CEO Brian Roberts told a private meeting of venture capitalists that while Comcast had once allowed and encouraged independent entrepreneurs to create new channels and services, such as CNN, it would “not let that happen again.” Awww.creativevoices.us.
Read CCV full news release.
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