The Commission today (12/14) has given its approval to a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) that explores ways to enable multichannel video programming distributors, such as
cable and satellite providers, to communicate with their subscribers in more efficient and less costly ways.
Cord-cutters are part of a growing body of consumers who resent the high cost of
cable and satellite subscriptions (roughly $50 per month for basic programming, double that or more for premium packages) and dislike being forced to accept dozens of channels they neither want nor need - what the distributors call "bundling."
NEW YORK -- Cord cutters rejoiced last week after HBO and CBS announced plans to sell stand-alone streaming services, a move that
cable and satellite television providers have resisted for years.
John McCain (R-Arizona) unveiled legislation May 9 that would upend the
cable and satellite business, forcing them to let customers pick and choose which channels they would like.
Here does not specify its number of subscribers, saying only that it is available in more than 50 million
cable and satellite homes.
FREED FROM the fetters that bind broadcasters using "the public airwaves,"
cable and satellite providers are able to pipe into our homes the indecent, gratuitous, excessively violent programming that all right-thinking Americans demand.
AS WRITERS OF
CABLE and satellite programs have "pushed the envelope" to see how far they can go with obscenity and indecency, critics have termed programs everything from "tacky" and "in bad taste" to "raunchy" and "suffocating sewage." The Federal Communications Commission licenses frequencies to radio and television broadcasters who, by law, must meet public service requirements and obey decency rules.
So-called t-commerce is expected to be available to some
cable and satellite customers within the next year.
'There is clear evidence that viewers worldwide will continue to switch to digital television using
cable and satellite platforms,' said Nick Griffiths, director broadband entertainment strategies at Strategy Analytics.
So the five best choices are asynchronous analog, ISDN, DSL,
cable and satellite.
The observatory revealed that 122 million TV homes in the 38 countries surveyed are equipped for cable or satellite reception, versus only 111 million in 2000; from 2000 to 2001, digital
cable and satellite homes increased by 54 percent in Europe; 19 million European homes subscribe to a digital multichannel; and 98 million homes in the 38 countries surveyed receive channels broadcast via Eutelsat's Hot Bird and Eurobird satellites.