Monday, November 12, 2007

Monday, November 12, 2007

Can FCC successfully squeeze the cable monopoly???

If you live in Manhattan, you carry Time Warner Cable. There are some parts of the 5 boroughs that carry other cable services but Time Warner owns Manhattan. As there is with everything else in life, there is good and bad connected to Time Warner service with the good outweighing the bad. A couple of good examples of the latter would be that we do not have either the NFL or Biography channels, both of which would be viewed in the Phillips household. We have about 1,000 channels but these two have alluded the grasp of viewers of Time Warner. You must have similar cable dilemmas with your service. Everyone does. Is the FCC stepping in to help us???

Under a proposed rule floating around at the FCC, cable companies such as Comcast and Time Warner Cable would be required to slash the price they charge smaller television programmers to lease access on spare cable channels, a move by the FCC that would open up cable viewers to a wider diversity of shows. You mean, like Biography and the NFL channels? One can only hope. The 1984 Cable Act, deregulated cable systems to allow them to compete against the television industry if cable television became available to 70% of U.S. households and 70% of those who can subscribe to cable do, the cable TV industry can once again be regulated. The so-called "70/70 provision" may have been met thanks to Verizon's Fios...

FCC Chairman Kevin J. Martin is asking the FCC to vote on the "lease access" rule on November 27th, the commission's next meeting. Martin is optimistic that he has the three commission votes needed for passage. The proposed rule comes as a result of the agency's annual review of competition in the video industry. Down the road, Martin would also like cable subscribers to be able to buy only the channels they want. Amen brother. The hope is that the FCC does the right thing - the only thing that will allow me to watch the Biography and NFL channels...

10 Timeline Memories:
  1. 1920] Here come de judge: Judge Kennesaw Mountain Landis is elected baseball's first commissioner which brings a smile to Shorty Long's face: http://youtube.com/watch?v=IQi546UqfT4 ...
  2. 1931] A 'Nessie' sighting: The first known photo of the 'Loch Ness Monster' is taken: http://youtube.com/watch?v=lvqeH-z3HVI ...
  3. 1940] Premiered on this date: "Fantasia", not the singer, the Walt Disney masterpiece: http://youtube.com/watch?v=N1cEg8NWRvw ...
  4. 1948] Guilty as charged: Former Japanese premier Hideki Tojo and several other WWII Japanese leaders are sentenced to death by a war crimes tribunal...1996] Jonathan Schmitz, 26, is convicted of second-degree murder for shooting Scott Amedure, a gay man who'd revealed a crush on Schmitz on a "Jenny Jones" TV show. Schmitz is serving a 20-25 year prison term...1997] Ramzi Yousef is found guilty of masterminding the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center. Yousef is serving a sentence of life without parole...2004] Scott Peterson is sentenced to death for murdering his pregnant wife, Laci, and dumping her body in San Francisco Bay. Peterson remains on death row...
  5. 1954] Closed for renovations: Ellis Island closes after processing more than 20 million immigrants since opening in New York Harbor in 1892...
  6. 1970] Last Call: The Doors make their last appearance with Jim Morrison in New Orleans...
  7. 1987] AIDS ban banned: The AMA issues a policy statement saying it was unethical for a doctor to refuse to treat someone solely because that person has AIDS or is HIV-positive...
  8. 1993] "Happy Trails": H.R. Haldeman, a former Nixon White House chief of staff, dies of undisclosed causes at 67...
  9. 1998] Wedding Bells: Daimler-Benz, Chrysler and baby Daimler-Chrysler unite...
  10. 2001] Belle Harbor hell: American Airlines flight 587 crashes in Belle Harbor, Queens shortly after taking off in perfect weather, from JFK, taking more than 260 lives...

Music Memories:

  • 1958] Number One on this date: "Tom Dooley" - Kingston Trio...1985] "We Built This City" - Jefferson Starship's homage to the city by the bay: http://youtube.com/watch?v=TxGGckAc1rs ...
  • 1966] Released on this date: "Mellow Yellow" - Donovan...1984] "Like a Virgin" LP - Madonna...

Commentary:

"Happy Trails" to author/celebrity Norman Mailer who passed away Saturday at the age of 84. Mailer, the hard-drinking, party loving, two-time Pulitzer Prize winner died of acute renal failure at Mount Sinai Hospital in Manhattan...If you were a football fan in the 50s, then you remember former New York Giants' defensive back, Dick Nolan. Nolan who would go on to coach the San Francisco 49ers, something his son Mike now does, passed away yesterday at 75. The elder Nolan had been in declining health with Alzheimer's disease and prostate cancer for several years...

"Happy Birthday...happy birthday":

Tonya Harding (37), Sammy Sosa (39), Nadia Comaneci (46), Neil Young (62), Al Michaels (62), Booker T. Jones (63), Bryan Hyland (64), Ruby Nash Curtis (68), Charles Manson (73), Bob Crewe (76) and Jo Stafford (90) who had the original version of "You Belong To Me": http://youtube.com/watch?v=9H1Imb6jm0U ...

Timeline Countdown: 10 days until Thanksgiving, 23 days until Hanukah, 40 days until winter and 43 shopping days until Christmas...