Monday, February 29, 2016

FCC Probes Cable Firms' Influence on Web-TV

The Federal Communications Commission is probing whether big cable firms use special contract provisions to discourage media companies—from Walt Disney Co. to smaller firms—from running programming on the Internet.

According to The Wall Street Journal, it is part of a broader attempt by the FCC to address one of the big conundrums of the telecom age: Why has television been so slow to come to the Internet, despite technical breakthroughs that made it possible long ago?

The FCC is expected to act soon to curb such contracts on the part of two big cable firms, Charter Communications Inc. and Time Warner Cable Inc., if the agency approves their merger. Consumer advocates hope that change would set a precedent that could eventually cover the industry as a whole.

Despite the success of a few on-demand streaming services like Netflix and Hulu, the long-anticipated migration of familiar TV channels to the Internet, especially with real-time programming, has yet to unfold on any significant scale.

At issue are the contracts that pay-TV companies, mostly cable and satellite firms, sign with media companies such as television networks whose programming they carry. The cable firms often insist on inserting clauses that prevent the media companies from simultaneously providing their programs to an online provider, industry insiders say.

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