Cable Industry Pushes FCC on Franchise Fee in-Kind Contribution Changes

Cable representatives took their case for in-kind contributions counting as franchise fees, counting against the statutory cap, to a meeting with FCC Media Bureau Chief Michelle Carey and Office of General Counsel and Office of Economics and Analytics staffers, said a docket 05-311 posting Wednesday. NCTA, Comcast and Charter Communications said it's wrong to interpret the Cable Act definition of public educational and government access facilities so that channel capacity isn't treated as a capital cost excluded from franchise fees. Only costs associated with construction of PEG access facilities are capital costs excluded from the cap, the cablers said.