CABLE COMING UNTETHERED?

Now that the burgeoning cable market has hit the 70/70 mark - at least 70% of the country wired with at least 70% of those households subscribing - the U.S. television industry is entering a new age. And the major cable nets are running scared.

They have good reason.

Last month, FCC Chairman Kevin Martin unveiled a bold new policy for regulating TV that would include cable networks for the first time in the 30+ year history of the cable industry. For the independent production community, it couldn't have come at a better time - unless, of course, it was 10 years ago.

You see, the 70/70 rule was enacted in 1984 to help the cable industry grow and thrive as competition to the broadcast networks. Back then, the industry was in its infancy with few actual networks beyond HBO, Showtime, MTV and not much else. Subscribers were in the tens of thousands, at best. Not much competition for the likes of the venerable CBS, NBC and ABC broadcast networks.

Enter the FCC. With surprising forethought, the FCC went against the wishes of the Big Three and protected their fledgling competitors. A generation later, Mr. Martin wants to cut the cable networks loose of their training wheels. Another wise decision, but the child the FCC helped nurture has grown so huge that it now has more power in the halls of Congress than the Commission does.

Money and lobbyists are doing a swell job of fighting off Mr. Martin's logical next step as a parent - to let go of the young adult it once sheltered and have it sink or swim on its own merits in the volitile world of commercial television. Including FCC regulation similar to the broadcasters.

We're now 'blessed' to have 500+ channels beamed into our living rooms across the nation. Sounds like waiting for the 70/70 threshold was prudent, right? Well, let's take a closer look.

We've gone from the Big Three broadcasters to the Big 6 conglomerates - Disney (ABC, Disney, ABC Family), GE (NBC, USA, Bravo, SciFi, A&E, History, CNBC, MSNBC), Viacom (MTV, CBS*, Showtime, Comedy Central, BET), Time-Warner (HBO, CNN, The CW, AOL), Discovery (Discovery, Animal Planet, Science, Times, Military, Health), and Fox (Fox, FX, National Geographic, MySpace).

Something in the order of 80% of all networks are in the hands of just 6 media groups. So much for media competition and diversity. Apparently, the FCC sheltered it's child a bit too long. And now the "hundreds" of cable nets are crying foul.

Huh?

The big deal for the cablers revolves around the 'a la carte' issue. Martin wants subscribers to have the option to get individual networks instead of package plans and 'tiers'. Cable execs say this will cause rates to increase and will probably drive lower viewership niche channels to go 'off the air'.

I'm torn on this issue. Financially, the cablers are probably right. As a consumer, I'd rather select my own package as opposed to hundreds of channels that do nothing for me in order to get the 2 or 3 I watch regularly and the 2 or 3 occastionals.

The big deal for me as an independent producer is access to a broad and diverse market to sell my product. Sure, there are 'hundreds' of channels that have individual programmers, but what happens if you have a product - say a documentary - that criticizes the parent company. Well, kiss a slew of networks good-bye as potential clients.

I had a recent experience where one network was at the heart of a controversial subject that would have been perfect for a couple of its cable affiliates had they been independently owned. No sale there. My competition had done tangental stories on the same subject, but missed the mark and were superficial at best.

Scratch another voice at the expense of vast competition and diversity.

Though it doesn't look good in this age of big money lobbyists and an apethetic public, maybe Mr. Martin can overcome the wave of opposition. It's a long shot, but there's always a chance.

I sure hope so, the democracy depends on it.