FCC wants big fines for cable giants over channel switching

[jayfish]

Source: Ars Technica

Outgoing Federal Communications Commission chair Kevin Martin got his last licks in on the cable industry on Monday, proposing a slew of fines against companies that the agency says migrate analog channels to digital tiers, forcing consumers to buy digital set top boxes or more expensive packages. The Commission wants to fine Comcast, Bright House, Cox, Cablevision and others for not fully responding to Letters of Inquiry asking for details on the practice, or for doing the analog to digital channel switcheroo without giving consumers proper notice.

"The Commission has received nearly 600 complaints from cable subscribers around the country who one day were watching their favorite channel and then the next day were unable to access it," Martin wrote in a letter to Senators Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) and Kay Bailey Hutchinson (R-TX) announcing the proposed penalties. "In short, cable customers have been receiving less from the cable companies but paying the same price or, in some cases, more."

Read more: http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20090120-fcc-wants-big-fines-for-cable-giants-over-channel-switching.html

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I'm all for this; but didn't Martin find it the least bit Ironic that the cable companies acted the same way towards the FCC inquiries as the Administration that employed him did towards inquires and subpoenas from Congress? Cause and effect much?

Jay

[high density]

1. Start with Comcast for screwing with MSNBC

Out of all of the channels... I mean come on.

[Ian David]

2. COMCAST screwed with MSNBC and C-SPAN 2. n/t

[notadmblnd]

3. I lost cspan and my directory channel

and I'm still pissed about it. they've even had the nerve to call me to pay my pill and I was only a few days late. I'm thinking of switching to dish, calling comcast, paying my balance and telling them, now cancel my account.

[DainBramaged]

4. Cablevision took A&E, Sci-Fi, Speed away and forced me to spend $10

each for 2 boxes and $5 more a month on remotes. And they basically said FUCK YOU customer.

[pinniped]

5. Those Comcrap assholes routinely air SF Giants games on Comcrap Sports +....

channel. Regular cable subscribers can not receive the + channel, only the regular.

In past seasons, just about all games were on the regular cable channel.

These fuckers should be shut down, broken into hundreds of pieces, and fined billions.

They also took away CSPAN2 and the preview guide channel.

[L0oniX]

6. Switch to Dish Network ...fuck cable n/t

[John Kerry VonErich]

7. Dish Network = Awesome

They got Free Speech TV!

[dbonds]

14. I'm a big fan of Dish

[jayfish]

11. 3rd!!

Best HD DVR on the market.

Jay

[RCinBrooklyn]

8. I love my Direct TV. No more cable issues and great, consistent service.

[Dappleganger]

9. Same here!

They also regularly give us freebies when I call them to bitch about our bill.

[Bette Noir]

10. Fine 'em big!

Time/Warner took away my TCM without notice a few years ago, and were *so surprised* when I cancelled my service and went with a satellite company. They took away what I was paying for-- why would I want to pay them any more?

[Piewhacket]

12. Kevin Martin is Putrified Animal Puss.. no really..

and that's the nicest thing I can say about him.

If that piece o s* ever did anything to help consumers,
his bleepin head would explode.

He is one of the worst of the worst and should be
sentenced to 8 years listening to music for the hearing
impaired in a very well air conditioned cell at Gitmo.

On his way out he makes noises like "oh yea, btw we have all these
consumer complaints for the last 8 years we've done nothing
about, so we are mentioning them so we can later claim we
gave a shit and were working on them when the new chairman
discovers 'em buried in bottom of my back file cabinet.

So here they are, no time to do anything except blather
meaningless platitudes railing against Comcast because
they didn't pony up enough campaign moola.... hey,
elections have consequences to cable companies too!
So adios and good luck suckahs!"

[bobbert]

13. I think it's actually a good idea to have the digital boxes

Comcast here doesn't charge for the first box. But they require digital boxes. In Chicago there are so many people that stealing cable was extremely common, you just have to connect a wire. Now they can just keep the wire permanently connected and just have you plug in a box. They require that box to access channels to prevent cable theft. Now I'm not paying $100/month while some asshole across the street is getting the same thing for free.

I want prices as a whole to drop. I shouldn't be paying $100/month for TV. The tiering system sucks, not enough choices.

[radfringe]

15. it was one of the reasons we dumped Comcast

and went with DISH satellite..

For us, about 2 years ago - Comcast cut the number of channels and raised the rates for basic. At that time my partner was reluctant to go with satellite because of the cost. For $2/mth more Comcast was offering movies on demand feature and a few more channels if we "upgraded"

We gave it a try. After close to 2 weeks of problems with the movies on demand, numerous tech service calls, techs coming to the house, replacing the cable and other "hardware" (including multiple coverter boxes)- we had it. One customer service rep even told us the problem was that the signal came through the "air" and bad weather was causing the problem...

( :wtf: it's cable, the signal comes through a cable, and the skies were clear/sunny during that period - not even a hint of precipitation)

DISH monthly charges were about $5 more than the Comcast basic (without movies on demand) and substantially offered more stations. Bye-bye Comcast, hello Dish.

yes, there have been times during extremely bad weather when we have no signal but it only lasts a few hours at the most. Annoying yes, but overall still better than Comcast.

Our neighbor still has Comcast and recently received a notice of a rate increase plus a reduction in the number of channels on the "basic plan". She and her husband are checking out satellite TV - they haven't decided if they want Dish or Direct, but they are definitly dumping cable.

[Delphinus]

16. Yeah!

Comcast sucks with the way they have done this! If it wasn't for the fact I greatly desire and have become accustomed to highspeed Internet, and I dislike Verizon so very strongly, I'd drop Comcast in a heartbeat for the way they treat their subscribers.

[Mnemosyne]

17. c-span 2 went from ch. 13 to 185 here. n/t

[4_TN_TITANS]

18. And the oversight begins...

Hope to see much more of this kind of stuff.