Satellite : Next FCC Meet: What's on Martin's Mind?

[evd]

It's expected that the Federal Communications Commission will soon release an agenda for its Dec. 18 meeting (possibly even today). And it looks like FCC Chairman Kevin Martin may have big issues on the docket.

For starters, there's talk that Martin wants to pursue a plan in which the FCC could auction wireless spectrum with a mandate that the winning bidder provide for some sort of free internet access. Already, some wireless interests have expressed reservations about the rumored plan.

On the video side, the National Association of Independent Networks said the FCC has added talk about carriage access discrimination and program unbundling to its agenda for the December meeting. NAIN and its supporters have been pushing for an end to what it called discriminatory carriage practices deployed by big cable companies against emerging, independent networks.

As for satellite-related issues, there has been talk about Martin and the rest of the FCC scrutinizing the terrestrial loophole. There are not a lot of specifics on the topic, and it is vague whether the commission will tackle the issue, in which cable-controlled content can be withheld from competitors like DBS if the content is delivered via terrestrial means.