Paul Kapustka's Blog
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February 16, 2006
National video franchising, coming soon
Though boring, yesterday's Senate Commerce Committee hearing about video franchising rules held a clear signal that it's just a matter of when, not if, that state-level or national rules replace the local franchising setup. Just like the Omegas, the RBOCs are in charge here. The only thing missing was Ted Stevens as Dean Wormer, telling Ed "Marmalard" Whitacre "let's finish this damn thing."
Only problem, there is no Delta house around to sneeze "Eat Me!" or to call for a point of parlimentary procedure. The body language, the lack of tough questioning, all point to an RBOC victory that's all but assured.
Sometimes, it seems the simple arguments are the ones that carry the day. Unlike Network Neutrality, local franchise agreements are something that Chairman Stevens can get his arms around. When he starts asking the cable and local-franchising proponents if they think that cities should be able to extort flower beds and free goodies for their franchise licenses, or if there is some small number of PEG (public, education and government) channels that everyone can agree on, you could see they had no reasonable answers or ready retorts.
As D-Day says, "War's over, man." But this time, there will be no homecoming parade. Instead, localities will have to settle for a check from the state for the franchising fees and local control they used to exchange for rights-of-way and hope that redlining rules aren't as weak as the Faber College ROTC.
Posted by paul at February 16, 2006 01:30 PM