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Government Policy
Solution
for National Cable & Telecommunications Association
| Challenge |
A
paper submitted to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) by the
National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) asserted that cable TV systems
would have ample channel capacity to carry the digital transmissions of TV
broadcast stations as well as the TV stations' digital transmissions, during the
transition of TV stations to digital. NAB advocated that FCC impose a
"dual carriage" obligation on cable operators. The National
Cable & Telecommunications Association (NCTA) needed a
response to the NAB filing that would be credible, could be prepared
quickly, and that would reflect deep understanding of cable TV industry
data and of relevant trends in multi-channel services markets.
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| Solution |
PDS
Consulting carefully reviewed the internal logic of the NAB submission and
the data that were used. We discovered that the NAB paper had failed to
address the most critical questions about cable TV channel capacity, and that
it had focused solely on the amount of capacity that might be delivered by
cable TV systems but ignored the availability of capacity for dual
carriage without displacing existing or new cable services. The NAB paper
also ignored the costs that would be incurred by industry stakeholders and
by consumers if such displacement occurred. We re-calculated key
components of the NAB analysis and determined that it materially
underestimated the capacity needed for dual carriage on cable systems
serving most of the industry's subscribers. NCTA submitted the PDS
Consulting paper to the FCC. Shortly afterwards, the NAB announced that it
would no longer focus on "dual carriage" as a top policy
priority. Click here to read
paper.
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