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Note: The FCC is on track for 'Corporate Giveway' part two - giving the cable companies the same public interest concessions that were granted to the phone companies.

from: Bloomberg News

FCC Won't Delay Vote on Cable TV Rules, McDowell Says

By Molly Peterson

April 4 (Bloomberg) -- Court challenges to rules that made it easier for AT&T Inc. and Verizon Communications Inc. to offer television won't delay a vote on applying similar rules to cable companies, a U.S. Federal Communications Commission member said.

``We are going on, regardless of the appeal,'' Commissioner Robert McDowell said today during a news conference. The FCC, which released the phone-company television rules March 5, has agreed to decide within six months of that date whether to ease cable TV franchising rules.

The FCC order requires local regulators to decide within 90 days on phone companies' applications to offer TV. It also limits the fees and requirements that local agencies can place on TV franchises. The FCC adopted the measure Dec. 20 in a 3-2 vote, with McDowell and the commission's two other Republicans supporting it.

The rules may speed phone companies' efforts to introduce TV and help them challenge cable providers such as Comcast Corp., which have lured away customers with phone and Internet services. AT&T and Verizon, the two biggest U.S. phone companies, say lengthy negotiations with hundreds of localities have slowed their expansion into television.

Local officials yesterday asked several U.S. appeals courts to reverse the new rules, saying the FCC overstepped its authority. The appeals, filed by groups such as the National Association of Telecommunications Officials and Advisors, said the FCC order is ``arbitrary and capricious'' and violates the U.S. Constitution.

TV Violence

Shares of San Antonio-based AT&T fell 51 cents to $39.23 at 4 p.m. in New York Stock Exchange composite trading. They have climbed 9.7 percent this year. New York-based Verizon shares lost 10 cents to $38.02 and have gained 2.1 percent this year.

The FCC also is in the ``final editing phases'' of a report on whether Congress can restrict violent TV programming without violating the Constitution, McDowell said. He said he hopes the report will be released within the next two weeks.

McDowell said he believes Congress and the FCC can find a way to regulate violent content without running afoul of TV broadcasters' rights to free speech.

``This is a new area for Congress and the FCC to be examining, and we need to tread cautiously,'' he said.

TV broadcasters are not doing enough to keep violence off the air during the hours when children are most likely to be watching, McDowell said. ``I'd give them a C-minus,'' he said.

Efforts to restrict TV violence may be resisted by broadcasters such as CBS Corp. and News Corp., which have asked a federal court to throw out the FCC's indecency rules.

To contact the reporter on this story: Molly Peterson in Washington at mpeterson9@bloomberg.net