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Date: Tue, 23 Jan 1996
From: James Love <•••@••.•••>
To: Multiple recipients of list <•••@••.•••>
Subject: CPT FCC motion on DBS cross ownership and TCI
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INFORMATION POLICY NOTES
January 23, 1996
- Consumer Project on Technology Asks FCC to Bar TCI and other
cable operators from acquiring licenses for scarce "Direct
Broadcast Satellite" (DBS) Television services. DBS is a
service like Direct TV or Primestar, that provides video
programming from a satellite. The service is supposed to
compete against monopoly cable franchises.
- FCC scheduled auction for third of three national DBS
licenses for Wednesday, January 24, 1996. On Monday the FCC
announced that TCI would be one of three bidders for the DBS
license.
- TCI is largest cable company in US, an investor in Time-Warner, a
partner with US WEST in European networks, and major
investor in Primestar, one of two current national DBS
licenses (the other is Direct TV).
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This came directly after I posted the QUESTION to the list. It
underscores the power of deep pockets to monopolize _any_ channel of
interconnection -- regardless of what purpose motivated its development.
Good luck to the Consumer Project on Technology, but the winds of change
are not blowing their (or our) way.
Who owns Iridium? If they have deep pockets, then won't they play
along with their natural monopolist colleagues? And if they don't have
deep pockets, then can't they be bought out as soon as their product is
proven? After all, venture capital operations typically love to recoup
their investment by selling out for oodles of cash or blue-chip stock to a
larger firm that can better leverage the technology, from a financial
perspective.
In Realism,
-rkm
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Posted by Richard K. Moore (•••@••.•••) Wexford, Ireland
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Materials may be reposted in their entirety for non-commercial use.
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